Tomorrow's Laughin' At Me
by UnderdogHero
Summary: Even though he's dealt with everything holding him back - well, maybe not EVERYTHING - Kyou doesn't think the rest of his "normal school life" will go as planned, especially when those jerks are still bothering his friends. Not to mention that letter he got one day - what's this about a circuit? "Tomorrow" series season 2, sequel to "Another Day, Tomorrow".
1. Chapter 1

A/N: HERE IT IS. THE LONG AWAITED - but probably not - FIRST CHAPTER OF SEASON 2!

... Well, it's probably not as big an achievement as I make it out to be. The fact that it took me this long to get started and I'm currently hal asleep probably doesn't help.

Pathetic, I know. But the boys(and girl) are back for more fun and heart-wrenching- I can't keep this up.

 **.**

"Cut my hair."

In Kyou's opinion, the sight of Madoka dropping his pen and watching it roll of the desk in silence was pretty amusing.

Though there was little he could think of to explain the boy's shock.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you right." He said nervousyly. "Did you just tell me to _cut your hair_?"

"... Yes?" He said hesitantly, raising an eyebrow. "Wait, don't tell me that stuff Yoshiro said-"

"No!" Madoka stood up suddenly, attracting quite a bit of attention for someone usually so quiet. "I can cut hair perfectly fine - hell, it's my future career choice - but- just- _why_?"

Kyou thought it over for a moment. His hair just barely passed his shoulders now, and he never considered growing it out. It just... happened. Maybe it was because it was getting annoying that he considered cutting it now?

... It might have something to do with an annoying comment Tetsu made about him starting to look like one of Asaka's underlings. That was a scary thought.

"No reason." He lied. Madoka wouldn't get it anyway. Though the odd look he recieved from the brunette was enough for him to glance away. "You can cut anyone's hair but your own, right?"

"Hey, shut up."

At that, Kyou didn't bother hiding his laugh, which Madoka returned with a grin of his own.

Yeah, this was how things were supposed to be.

"By the way," Madoka said once their laughter stopped. "Did you finish your submission for this week's chapter?"

Kyou hummed, thinking back to what he'd accomplished. His chapter was one detailing the background of a minor antagonist some of the other students asked about, and he was most of the way through their required five hundred words per chapter. While it didn't seem like much, fitting it all into the minimum - and keeping it below the maximum - was proving to be more difficult than he thought.

"I should be done by tomorrow." He said, receiving a nod in response.

"If there's anything I can help with, just ask. I designed the character and all."

Right. Madoka had been in charge of most of the villains, while Yoshiro and Akio did the heroes. Kyou himself had been paired with Masuyo for side and neutral characters. Their little side story was turning out to be a larger scale project than they thought, especially since they continuously added to their list of scrapped ideas - which they hadn't completely exhausted yet.

At least their club was getting the recognition it deserved.

 **.**

"So my brothers have been bugging me to come back to the cooking club." Masuyo sighed, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "You'd think they would have gotten the idea after I gave them every reason I could think of _not_ to go back."

Yoshiro and Akio nodded along, though the former was only half listening while he balanced out their club duties. Trying to work around their five inconsistent schedules was difficult, but at least he knew his and Madoka's well enough that the two of them never ran into problems.

Masuyo had been tied up with finding a job for when they graduated, preferably one that would let her work without a high school degree. The idea of going to the same school as her brothers didn't sit well with her, she'd said, which is why she wanted to pay for her own schooling. Kyou mentioned how troublesome it sounded, but he didn't disagree with her either. Something about not wanting to be stuck in the same building as his brother for the same reasons.

Said boy also had an increasingly busy schedule, since one of his old friends - at least, Yoshiro assumed he was a friend - had him running around stalki- _monitoring_ people from their organization. He had his own opinions about such shady work, but Kyou obviously wasn't that happy about it either.

Akio was a complete mystery to him still. The boy never told them where he was going when he left early or failed to show up for club, but it seemed to be an unspoken group rule not to pry into each other's business if they didn't speak of it first. If the boy didn't want to tell them, they would wait.

The wind blew suddenly, and he let out an annoyed growl. He wouldn't have to do paperwork on the roof if Hagane hadn't been demanding more from him.

"I get what you mean." He heard Akio say, when he tuned back into the conversation. "My siblings are always asking me to come home early and play with them til late - I hardly ever have time to do those practice sheets you and Madokan gave me!"

Yoshiro blinked.

"You have siblings?" He asked, suddenly interested. Akio rarely talked about his own family, and since he mentioned it now...

"Hm? Oh, yeah, tons." The younger said with a shrug. "Brothers, sisters, there are even a few really little kids. I'm the oldest though."

With that last line, the term "really little kids" seemed a little obscure, but neither Yoshiro or Masuyo said anything.

The glint in Akio's bright eyes said he wouldn't stop talking if they did.

 **.**

For once, the room was silent when Kyou and Madoka walked in. Further inspection showed that Akio was absent from club again, which wasn't surprising.

What surprised them was that Yoshiro wasn't there either, and Masuyo had an annoyed expression on her face while she flipped through a book.

"Masuyo." Madoka started nervously. "Where's Yoshiro-san? He didn't mention leaving early today..." The _snap_ of Masuyo's book caused both boys to jump.

"He didn't leave." She said irritably. "Hagane called him out, they're talking in the SC office right now."

Madoka nodded, not questioning the sudden abbreviation. Both boys dropped their bags on the floor, taking their seats around the table they recently moved to the middle of the room. Easier to draft stories and get ideas down on the spot, Yoshiro had said. No one disagreed.

"So..." Kyou said. Rare was it that there were so few of them, and he felt at a loss. "What should we do while we wait?"

There was shuffling from the other side of the table, and he caught the folder Masuyo slid towards him.

"My chapter is next, right?" She said. "You guys pick one for me, and I'll work on getting ideas down for it."

Kyou nodded, flippeding the folder open. The loud scraping sound to his left told him Madoka had moved closer.

"I'll pick one for my next one too, then. I'm after Akio, after all."

It was roughly half an hour later when Yoshiro walked in, looking _very_ annoyed.

Kyou had a feeling their completely normal days were about to get shaken up.

 **.**

A/N: It started off a little slow, but that's how it is when you're transitioning into a new season.

But I have something important to announce. Since things aren't going as planned with "Through the Water", which should be obvious with me uploading this before chapter ten. Chapter nine is most of the way through, and I'm going to get it uploaded right after this, but after that I'm going to be putting the series on temporary hiatus. There's not really a specific reason, but you guys might have noticed I'm not all that great with long-term projects like "Tomorrow". So I'm going to be focusing on getting the chapters written instead of updating, so it isn't rushed. Then when I have enough of th story covered, I'll start updating it again in installment, maybe twice a week. I'll still be updating "Tomorrow" when I have a new chapter ready, but it'll be a slow progress and there _will_ be noticable gaps.

And now I'm off to take a nap, because it took everything I had to finish both this hapter and nine of "Through the Water".


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: So a few things happened between the first chapter and this one: my "nap" turned into me waking up the next day for school, the same day Google Chrome is telling me sudden pop-ups mean there's virus on my computer("24/7 customer support!" is bullshit, I'm telling you) and today my laptop is lagging terribly every time I try to use FF BECAUSE of the pop-ups. Yes, I've done virus and security scans. Four of them. All different programs. I'd be worried about hacking if anything on this thing was actually valuable, but since it's mostly just fanart, anime, and fanfiction, to hell with it. Hacker's loss.

On a positive note, and you'll all finally be seeing something I've been excited about adding to this series since season 1.

 **.**

Mornings were ungodly, and Kyou was glad it was a Saturday and therefor, he only had club activities.

Since his chapter was finished and Yoshiro was in the middle of editing it, Kyou had excused himself from the room to take a walk around the school. His reasoning was "you never know when you'll find something interesting" but really, he jsut wanted out of the sudden tense atmosphere that fell over them when Akio texted Madoka that he wouldn't be in.

It wasn't new, Akio having to skip club activities for something involving his family, but it _was_ concerning. The few times that he let anything slip, he quickly changed the subject and went on to act like the idiot he played up.

"I wonder what's up." He mumbled absently as he passed under the tree by the track field. "I know Yoshiro said we shouldn't push, but this might actually be dangerous. Maybe I should call -"

His train of thought was cut off when he attempted to turn at a corner and collided with something that felt oddly like a person, sending them both to the ground. He shook his head and looked up, an apology at his tongue, when he met dim orange eyes.

 _Oh, he's-_

"Sorry, are you okay?" He said quickly, standing up and offering the boy a hand. The other fumbled to grab his hand, which ended with Kyou grabbing his own and pulling him up.

"I'm fine, just... couldn't see anyone there." He said, rubbing his eyes. He squinted at Kyou. "Oh, but I can see you. Well, you're really just a big white blob, but I can... kinda?"

 _-blind. For the most part, at least_.

"Need some help? I don't really know the school that well though..." He wasn't lying, since the only places he went to at all were the classroom and club room. There was the main office, but he'd only been there once.

The boy shook his head, further messing up his greyish-black hair.

"No, I can get where I'm going... I think. I remember the layout of the building pretty well..." He paused, then furrowed his brows. "But I don't know where I am now. People don't usually pass through here, so I wasn't supposed to bump into you... I'm below the chem lab, right?"

Kyou looked up, attempting to make out the inside of the classroom above him. He nodded when he saw the several beakers and graphs - visible only because the marker they were drawn in bled through the paper - and turned back to the boy.

"Yeah, it's right above us, to your... left?" He finished hesitantly. He checked both is own hands, mirrored them in his head, then nodded again. "Yeah, upper left."

"Alright." He stood there thinking for a moment, but his worried look didn't disappear. "Do you know where the staircase is from here? I'm not good with distance."

 _It's about time I started heading back anyway_... Kyou thought when he saw the look on the other male's face. "Yeah, I can take you. I'm heading that way anyway."

 **.**

"So, um, your eyes..."

It was probably insensitive to ask, but something about it was really bothering him about it. He'd known a few fighters with vision problems, but none of them looked like this.

"An accident. My dad is a chemist... but he messes up a lot." The boy said. Kyou winced - he didn't need a full explanation to know what happened. "Oh, I forgot to give you my name."

He didn't ask for it, but Kyou didn't want to offend him by saying he didn't want to know.

"Onodera Nakuro." He said, holding out his hand in what Kyou supposed he thought was the right direction. "I'm a first year... I prefer being called by my first name."

Kyou shook his hand, if only to be polite.

"Yahagi Kyou, second." He said shortly. The were approaching the first-year floor now, where he supposed the boy - _Nakuro_ \- needed to be. "This is your floor, right?"

Nakuro nodded, reaching out and grasping the edge of the doorway. He paused as Kyou made to continue, turning back.

"I know this might sound weird, but... I think the uniform suits you. You're easy to see with all that white."

With that, he made his way through the hallway, leaving Kyou slightly confused.

 **.**

When Monday rolled around, Kyou had almost forgotten about his encounter with the strange first-year. Sure he was slightly concerned about his condition, but he was sure the school was alerted about it, and it would probably be weird to have someone you just met tailing you. He didn't bother telling the others either, since he was sure Madoka or Masuyo would just laugh at him for it. And he didn't even want to think about what Akio would have to say.

He was trying so hard to block out their possible response that he jumped when there was a screeching yell - in the direction of their club room.

"What the hell do you mean, _'Club to be disbanded'_?!"

 **.**

A/N: I should probably mention that this is happened at the same time as everything in "Through the Water", though unlike that one where it's going day-by-day, this is having quite a few skips. Otherwise, the plot wouldn't move at all.

That being said, there wasn't much leading up to that finish? I actually intended for the season to _start_ with this, but stuff happened and there wasn't anywhere in between to introduce who is probably my favorite OC. You guys will find out why later. But I'm glad I finally got to throw him in before I changed his name again - you wouldn't believe how many times this happened.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: So yesterday was my last day of my chocolates class... I'm supposed to be happy about this, right? Well, NO. My reason being when I left, the instructor told me I failed because I only did one page of our final notebook. The same one she told me I only needed to do one day of to pass. I fucking hated that class, so you can understand why these updates might seem a little stressed.

I'd say the sarcastic email I sent her afterwards got my point across, hopefully. Not my fault she decided to fail a disabled student.

But to the point; here's where the plot for part one of this season kicks in, so those of you brooding about there not being any cardfights? WISH GRANTED.

(I'm super excited about this, if you couldn't tell. A stark contrast to my several hours of depression yesterday.)

And because dates in Vanguard are very screwy, I'm only going to be listing the year the chapter takes place instead of the exact date, since I can only guess by using the school system.

 **.**

 _"Notice from Hibiya Middle School Student Council:_

 _Starting tomorrow, xx/xx/20xx, the Literature Club will be disbanded due to breach in school rules:_

 _-Lack of required members_

 _-Total grade percentage not meeting school requirements_

 _Members will have until 3:00 pm today to clear out any personal belongings. Anything left behind will be confiscated under school rule and held until further notice._

 _Any questions or concerns maybe taken to SC president Nakao Mayu or vice president Hagane Ryota._

 _Active members:_

 _Tegami Yoshiro_

 _Yamato Madoka_

 _Yahagi Kyou_

 _Hanoi Akio_

"What. The. _Fuck_."

On a normal day, Kyou would have worried about how he and Masuyo were in perfect sync, but seeing the paper taped to the door of their club room was of more concern. Underneat was another paper, listing the names of the club's members and their grade, which Masuyo was complaining loudly about being a "huge invasion of privacy!"

Madoka, for his part, looked like he was about to go into full-blown panic mode, eyes wide and clutching his uniform shirt tightly. It was hardly surprising, seeing as the literature club was practically his whole life.

The sound of approaching footsteps drew his attention away, turning to see Akio walking towards them, whistling. His tune trailed off as he took in their expression.

"This is gonna sound really insensitive, but... what's up?" He said hesitantly. Masuyo pointed angrily at the notice, which Akio took barely two seconds to read before his expression turned from confused to incredulous.

"What the _fuck_!" He shouted. Kyou was mildly glad they were the only ones on that side of the floor, this most of their comments went unheard, but he momentarily marveled at their shared mindset.

It was almost too bad Madoka didn't swear. And that he seemed to be having an aneurysm.

"Wait, where's Yoshiro?" Masuyo said, looking around. Indeed, their leader was nowhere to be seen, and the club room was locked. "He's usually here before any of us."

"Which means he already saw this." Kyou said passively. "He's probably already kicked down the SC's door and is in there arguing with Hagane right now."

The four of them stood there for a good three seconds before Masuyo, Akio and Madoka shot off towards the center stairwell. Kyou sighed, deciding to take his time and see where things went. He cast one last glance at the notice as he walked away, then paused.

He turned back, staring at the second sheet before something clicked.

 _Wait a minute_...

 **.**  
By the time he got to the ground floor, where the council office was located, he could already hear the screaming before he even walked in. By the sound of it, the argument hadn't progressed yet, as there were still "whys" and "hows" floating around.

"As I've said before, your club is being disbanded due to not following the rules the school has laid out for every club. In this case, you lack members _and_ grades."

"And that's why I'm saying, _how_?!"

It was easy to differentiate Yoshiro and Hagane's voices, mostly by what they were saying, but he didn't waste time in cutting into the conversation.

"Why don't you tell us specifically where we screwed up, then we'll talk it over?" He said, stepping between the two arguing males. Hagane looked surprised at his interruption, but cleared his throat and made his way to the desk near the window.

"As I was trying to explain to Tegami-" He shot the taller boy a dirty look. "-your club has violated two of the main requirements for school clubs."

"Go over them slowly, or we'll be here for a while." Akio said. Hagane sighed.

"First off, club members. While we have overlooked this one violation, it is only because the school festival was taking up most of our time and we didn't have a chance to bring this up."

Kyou nodded. "Alright. You say we don't have enough club members, but counting everyone here, that's five people. We meet the requirements."

Hagane nodded too, but there was a glint in his eyes that told him there was bad news.

"Yes, you would be five members... if you were all in the same club. However-" He opened a drawer in the desk, searching for something before pulling out two slips of paper. Knowing a fight would break out of anyone else moved, Kyou approached and took them, eyes widening slightly.

"Uehara Masuyo is not a member of your club. It is against the rules to be part of more than one, so her request to join the literature club was denied."

" _Two_ clubs?" Masuyo said, stomping over and snatching the papers out of Kyou's hands. He let her, and waited until she looked through both of them. "There's some kind of mistake, I withdrew from the cooking club _before_ the school festival!"

"Supposedly." Hagane replied, which was met with a glare from the girl. "However, we never received such a thing. We have no documents stating your withdrawal or dismissal from the cooking club. It's on the club president to submit it."

There was a tense moment of silence as Masuyo processed this, her expression slowly changing from confusion to disbelief, then anger.

"That _asshole_." She growled darkly. She threw the papers onto the desk, running out the door. While she didn't say anything, it was pretty obvious to everyone in the room what happened.

 _Her brother never accepted her withdrawal. That's why her name wasn't on the members list._

"... As for the second violation," Hagane continued, earning another glare, this time from Akio. "As you all know, each club requires its members to contribute at least twenty percent of their grade to keep the club functioning. Of course, if one member doesn't reach that twenty percent, then it's evened out by the other members if their grades are high enough. As of this semester your total percentage only comes up to eighty-eight percent."

Kyou mentally ran through their recent test scores, the look on Yoshiro's face implying he was doing the same thing. When they did, they quickly turned to look at Akio.

"... You failed your biology exam last week." Kyou said. Akio looked away shamefully.

"... I thought it would be okay since we had Masyu-san and you guys had such good grades, but since she's not really in the club..." he said quietly.

Nobody said anything about that. They had all focused on his math and English grades, assuming those were his weakest subjects. They never bothered checking his other classes because those two were the most important.

They couldn't blame him. In the end, all five of them shared the blame.

 _Five..._

An idea came in suddenly, although it was a long shot...

"What if we get another member? Someone that can even out the grades and bring up our numbers?"

It was an obvious solution, but not one without its obstacles. For one thing, while they'd become slightly more respectable among the student body, it was still a known fact that they did not get along with the student council. Seeing as they haven't had any new members since Masuyo- _Akio_ joined, that was proof enough.

Hagane hesitated to answer.

"... while that is the best solution, we've already received a request from another club for use of the room you are already occupying." Kyou winced.

 _So that's why they wanted us to clear out by tomorrow_... The best idea would be to negotiate with the other club, but...

"Which club? Maybe we can work it out." His patience was running thin at this point, the panic starting to set in. He didn't fear the student council - none of them did. It was the idea of not being able to continue their usual, carefree days that worried him.

That and the fact that Yoshiro looked about ready to murder someone, and the only thing stopping him was the fact that Kyou was still talking. And Madoka holding him by the hood of his sweater.

"The-" There was sudden knock on the open doors, a student that looked to be in the same grade as them peeking in.

"'scuze me, President?" He said. He took one look at Hagane, eyebrow raising. "What, she's not here?"

"Nakao is out with the flu." Hagane said, gesturing for him to come in. "But good timing. Yahagi, this is Murakawa Yo, vice captain of the cardfight club. They're the ones that asked to take your club's room."

 **.**

A/N: It's actually... a bit behind from where I wanted it to end, but this works for pacing. That and I've been typing for over four hours.

So I'm guessing you guys know where this is heading. Can't have a CFV fic without a little cardfighting, right?

So here'w what I want to know: what cland do you all think the lit club will use? I'm curious about what the readers think and their reasoning. Who knows, I might even change what I have planned!

(I'm also far to lazy to go through editing, so if you see any mistakes, remind me that I should probably hire a beta. You know, like I've been meaning to for the last two years.)


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: So I saw some interesting comments on last chapter, few as they were(no I'm not pushing for reviews) and I'm glad people are enjoying the new series. To be honest I felt like it was moving a little too fast for the first few chapters, but then I remembered that Asia Circuit wasn't long in general and I have to keep up with the "Through the Water" timeline too. It should be obvious, but the current happenings are set before Asia Circuit canon.

 **.**

Murakawa Yo was, in every sense of the word, was what Masuyo would jokingly call a " _genki guy_ ".

Kyou decided this the moment he started talking. He suppressed a shudder when the term ran through his head.

"So you guys are the literature club? I thought you already got disbanded? Unless that's what you're here for, because I _think_ I'm here for the same thing. Maybe, I don't really know why my captain sent me here."

 _Someone please shut him up_. Kyou thought irritably. Hagane didn't seem to be doing any better, eyes closed and face an expression of annoyance and and paper-thing patience. He was tempted to let the boy keep talking, but he was starting to get a headache, and cut him off when he started going on about his club.

"Okay, we get it, you guys need the space." He said. He was a little surprised that the cardfight club had as many members as it did, but he supposed the recent national tournament had something to do with it. "But we're only short one member and we kinda _need_ that room."

Murakawa paused, arms still as he stopped flailing them. He stared at Kyou for a few seconds - Kyou entertained the thought that something broke inside him - before giving him a look that was a mix of smug confidence and superiority.

"What if you _don't_ get a new member? From what I know, your club isn't very popular and you haven't had any new members for _months_."

If not for the fact that he spent a good two years with Ren, Kyou wouldn't have been able to hide his mild surprise. _Is everyone in this school except my club assholes?_

"We will. At least give us a few days?" He said. "We just need a little time, it's not like we got any sort of warning about this!"

He sent Hagane a sideways glare, to which the boy ignored him. Next to him, Yoshiro seemed to have calmed down, though he still looked rather angry. It was most likely because of their rivalry - and absolute hatred - that the literature club didn't get any advanced notice about their lack of members or their grade percantage, but he was sure Hagane would have withheld this information even if they _weren't_ openly antagonistic towards each other.

At that thought, Hagane decided to cut in.

"Even if you manage to get a new member, the status of your club room would still be an issue. When it comes to stuff like this, usually the bigger clubs have priority, as they're making more progress. You, on the other hand, have a total of four members - five if you manage to find someone - but other than your mild success during the festival and weekly columns in the school newspaper, you haven't been showing much work." He said. While his mouth was hidden behind his clasped hands, Kyou was willing to bet he was grinning. "So you'll most likely need to resubmit a club form and wait for a room to open up."

Which would also erase old club records, making it seem like they hadn't done any work at all. He was giving them two option: let the club disband, or start over.

Well, Kyou was good at taking third options.

"A fight." He said, much to everyone's shock. Even he was slightly surprised, but he went with it. "If we manage to get another member in a week, we'll have a match against the cardfight club for club ownership of the room."

There was a tap behind him, and someone tugged on his sleeve.

"Kyou, what are you doing?" Soft as the voice was, he didn't need to look to see the fear on Madoka's face. He bit his lower lip, frustration welling up.

"I know, but this is the only thing they'll agree to." He whispered, not turning away.

Hagane made a humming noise, tapping his index finger against his knuckle. He glanced between Kyou and Murakawa, then momentarily at Madoka, before sighing. When he set his hands down, he was openly grinning.

"Alright. But if the literature club loses, you'll have to allow your club to be disbanded, no questions asked. Agreed?"

Yoshiro and Akio openly objected, but Kyou silenced them with one word:

"Agreed."

 **.**

"What the hell are you thinking?!"

Back in their club room - they'd been allowed to keep using it until the deadline - Yoshiro didn't hold back as he yelled exactly what everyone, even Kyou, was thinking.  
"What indeed..." He mumbled, mentally going through the conversation. He sighed, turning to Madoka, ignoring Yoshiro when he demanded an answer. "Madoka, you get it right?"

The boy looked startled before turning his gaze to the floor. "Yeah."

"They gave us two options; go with the disbandment, or start everything over. Either way we would have lost." He continued. "This way, we can at least put up a fight, even if we don't want to."

At the word "fight", Madoka flinched, but it was Yoshiro that stepped between them.

"You're forgetting something." He said, and Kyou raised an eyebrow. "Other than you and Madoka, we don't have anyone else that knows how to play Vanguard."

He looked to Akio, who shrugged.  
"Some of the kids at home know how to play, but I've never tried it myself." He said, scratching the back of his head with a forced grin. "But hey, it can't be too hard, right?"

"It's really not." Madoka said, gaining everyone's attention. "Depending on what clan and sub-type you use, it can be really easy to play."

"Eh, clan? Sub-type...?" It was obvious they'd lost Akio now.

Meanwhile, Kyou was going over his options. Though his biggest concern was getting the right cards to build usable decks for Yoshiro and Akio, they also needed to train to a level where they would at least be able to hold their own.

Not to mention finding a new member within a week...

He still had his connections to Tetsu, too...

"Alright!" He said, startling everyone in the room "I don't know how we'll do it, but we need to figure something out."

At their confused looks, he pointed to Madoka.

"Do you have any extra cards from when you played?" He asked. Madoka blinked, before realization dawned on him.

"I-I think so? I didn't get rid of any, so I should have a... binder or box somewhere." He stuttered, a little less confused when he realized where Kyou was going with this. He nodded. "I'll look for them tonight and bring them in tomorrow."

Kyou nodded back. "Good. I was able to keep what I had from when I was on Foo Fighters-" Not that he had a choice, anything he left was sent to his house two days after he started school. "-so we might be able to do something with them. At worst, we'll have to buy some packs or boxes, but this will give us a general idea of what we need when we see what we have."

During their talk, Yoshiro and Akio looked increasingly confused, possibly due to their sudden motivation. They jumped when both boys turned to them.  
"As for you two," He said, pointing at them. "I want you guys to look up what clans there are and decide on what you want to use. Akio, since there are kids that play where you live, don't hesitate to ask them for advice. Yoshiro has Madoka for reference, and either of you can call me if you're really stumped."

"Kyo-Kyo, have you done this before...?" Akio asked hesitantly. Kyou shrugged.

"I had to train new recruits once, but it was a lot more... messy." He said, remembering a room of ten new members all arguing while he tried to get their attention. He'd ended up switching control over to Tetsu, though he was less inclined to deny it now. "Like I said; I don't know how, but we'll figure something out. As for a new member... leave that to me, I'll do something about it."

After a moment, Yoshiro sighed, giving him an exasperated look.

"You know, it was only after you joined that we really started having trouble." He said, but the smile on his face showed he wasn't mad. "But we also started fighting back, so I guess it was worth it in the end."

He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and letting it out. When he looked at them again, there was nothing but pure determination.

"Alright, we'll work on this tonight, and go over our plan tomorrow. Kyou, I'm leaving recruitment to you."

When everyone cheered in agreement, they exited the room, minds racing.

 **.**

"Where is it, where is... found it!"

Madoka grunted, grabbing the binder by the strap on its spine and pulled it out from under his bed, falling back into a pile of stuffed animals. Once it was completely out, he shuffled back, turning it over and unzipping it.

As expected, there was a thin layer of dust on the cover, but he ignored it and threw the binder open, coughing slightly a the cloud that rose up. He scanned the first page, which was Royal Paladin, before flipping through the rest.

He'd briefly forgotten, in his attempted to detach himself from the game, how many cards he'd collected during his time as a Vanguard fighter. The binder was surprisingly organized, though there were a few pages with mized cards, which must have been the times when he was too lazy to rearrange them.

"This should do." He said, snapping it shut - it made a loud _thud_ as the pages collided - and stood up, placing it on his desk with a note:

 _'Be prepared!'_

 **.**

A/N: Madoka's binder is exactly what mine would look like if I kept it under my bed and not on the shelf with my Buddyfight cards; heavy and covered in dust from lack of use. I wonder how many people that read/write fanfiction and watch the show actually play the game...

But other than that, here's your plot; the lit club is taking on the cardfight club!... how many people didn't expect that? Because I'm pretty sure it was really, really obvious. This chapter was surprisingly easy to write though, since I got it done in less than a day.

As for decks, I already have some planned out, but I'm still working out their opponents clans. As a hint, I'll say this: I already have Kyou and Yoshiro's opponents figured out, I just need to figure out the last three. Oh, and let's see how many people can guess their new member...


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: I'm trying to read webtoons and play games on my phone, but the internet decided to derp and keeps resetting on me. So while I wait, here's chapter five!

... No, you're not getting cardfights yet. At least, not the ones you guys are hoping for. It's time for a change in scenery, like usual.

I also made a typo in chapter 2, a pretty bad one; Nakuro's last name should have been just _Onodera_ , without the _i_ in between the _r_ and _a_. Since spellcheck red-lines it anyway, I didn't look twice to make sure I didn't screw up _on my own character's name_. Sorry if that looked weird, I've already fixed it, so don't be confused if it's spelled that way in future chapters.

 **.**

Mamoru was not - in any way, shape, or form - stalking his brother.

... Okay, not stalking him in the _traditional_ sense, if you really want to nitpick.

In all honesty, he _was_ being a little nosy, but it wasn't like he was following him to school every day and keeping tabs on his friends like their dad wanted him to for the first week of school - way too much work for a college student who had more issues to deal with than his kid brother's school issues.

Like fixing his ex-roommate's computer, which somehow managed to both overheat _and_ freeze up.

Two different things, but he was pretty sure they were connected somehow.

"Yuki, dude, you really need to get this thing fixed by a pro. I'm not going to spend every weekend repairing this thing when you're only paying me the equivalent to my little brother's allowance."

A mouthful, but he wanted to get the point across. It didn't work as well as he'd hoped.

Aikawa Yukio had only been his roommate for two years when they were still in the same course, before the other man decided to transfer into graphic design - he preferred making flash anime than working on network repairs anyway.

"You know you can't resist the temptation to come here, bask in my awesome, and check out my computer's many viruses. Oh, and free food, since it takes you hours and I end up feeding you." The last part was said with a touch of annoyance, but it was clear there was some fondness to his accusations.

That, and Yukio was one damn good cook, having done most of the cooking when they were living together. So Mamoru couldn't talk, not when a middle schooler was the one kicking him out of the kitchen on weekends.

He needed to ask Kyou where the hell he learned to cook, because he was fairly certain he didn't help their mom.

 _Maybe if they got along better_... He thought distractedly. He's worked with his friend's computer so many times, he didn't really need to look to know what to do-

"Shit!" He hissed, pulling his hand away as one of the wires sparked and burned the tip of his finger. His exclamation caught the attention of the apartment's other occupant, and he blew on the wound before standing up, brushing off the dust that had come out of the computer. "Scratch taking it to a pro - you need a new computer in general. This thing's beyond help."

"I figured as much." Yukio said apathetically, earning himself a raised eyebrow. "It's been acting up a lot, so I backed up all the files before it really blew out."

"How convenient." He waved his hand slightly, partly to ignore Yukio's smug look and partly to reduce the stinging pain. "You're still paying me, you know. It costs a lot more to come here than you think."

"You only live in the next prefecture!" The other man complained, but he still threw a ziplock filled with a few bills at Mamoru anyway. "You could totally walk if you wanted to."

"I don't want to hear it from you, who can barely make it to the convenience store two blocks away without being completely out of breath."

Ignoring the rude gesture from the sandy-brunett, Mamoru made his way to the bathroom to look for the first aid kit he knew was there. He found it on the shelf above the toilet, "Be Prepared!" written across the surface in bright red ink with a skull drawn next to it.

"Remind me not to let you go into medicine." He called out, and he heard something that sounded like _'Been there, done that'_ , but ignored it in favor of digging for a bandaid.

"By the way, how's your brother and his friends?" He was asked when he came back. Yukio was fiddling with the computer, putting it back together. "You've been stalking him, haven't you?"

"It's called _Being a Nosy Sibling_ , sir. Not that you know anything about it." He snapped unintentionally. "He's fine, making friends, raising hell I hope."

"You're a horrible big brother..."

Or very expectant. He was honestly disappointed the school wasn't in flames yet. Maybe his new friends _were_ doing some good...

"... But he seems to have gotten into some trouble." He continued. Yukio hummed to signal that he was listening, moving the busted computer into a box. "Apparently their club made a bet with another club and now they're fighting over ownership of a room."

"That's..." Yukio turned to him completely now, sounding at a loss for words. "Inconsequential, I think?"

"And if they lose, their club is disbanded and all records of their progress erased."

"Okay, that's a little more problematic."

Very, really. But it wasn't like he could do anything about it...

"So what's he fighting with? I mean, if it's a win-loss thing."

Ah, right. Maybe there was something he cold do.

 **.**

"Uwah, this is almost too embarassing..."

Standing outside the card shop - and back in his own prefecture - Mamoru gave the sign a disdainful look. He'd never been one for card games, so coming here at his age was just a _little_ awkward.

A pat on his shoulder and a beaming smile from the man next to him gave him something new to brood about.

"Come on, do it for your brother! Family love and all that shit, right?"

Why was he friends with this freak again? Oh, right, roommates.

"Not enough family love to make me go in there." He grumbled, stumbling when he was pushed forward.

"Then this is where the bromance comes in to save the day! Come on, be your brother's hero!" Yukio was pushing him now, right into the sensor for the automatic door.

Shit, it opened-

"Welcome!" Was the friendly greeting they received from the man behind the counter. He gave them a slightly surprised look. "Oh, I haven't seen you before. New?"

"Sort of..." Mamoru said, giving Yukio a withering glare as the slightly-younger male went to look at the cards in display cases. "I'm here for my brother, actually. I think he might be needing a Vanguard deck soon."

The man nodded along, turning around to search through some shelves. "New player?"

"Returning. He used to play, but he ran into some trouble with his old team and quit." There was a slight buildup of rage deep, deep inside him when he remembered what Ren did to his brother, but he squashed it down.

"That's unfortunate. What team was he on? I might just know him!"

"Foo Fighters."

There was a sudden, second-long moment of silence, which stood out in the previously noisy shop. But it soon picked up again, the players returning to their fights. He noticed some stares though, and and whispers of his hair color and how he "looked just like that loser from Foo Fighters".

This time, he let the rage build up. It was one thing when it was a fleeting memory, it was another to be directly confronted by it.

Speaking of direct-

"Um, by any chance, are you Kyou-kun's brother?"

He turned to see a short, blue-haired boy next to him, shuffling through the packs displayed on the counter - has he been there long? - but was now looking at him.

"Uh, yeah." He said. "Yahagi Mamoru."

There was a look of very, _very_ mild surprise on the boy's face, but it was soon replaced with a small smile.

"I see." He said. There was a bit of joy in his tone, like he was learning something that made him happy. "I didn't know he had siblings, but I don't know him very well in general..."

"You're friends with my brother?" The question left him before he could stop himself. Glancing back, he could see an amused smirk on Yukio's face - _That bastard, he's laughing at me!_ \- at his friend's situation.

"I wouldn't say friends..." The boy continued, bringing him out of his images of how he would murder his former roommate later. "We were on opposing teams before, and he helped me out, but we're not too close."

Looking closely, he vaguely remembered seeing this kid's face before.

Wait-

"Sendou... Aichi, right?" He said, a new idea coming to mind when the boy nodded. He didn't seem at all creeped out that someone knew his name, but on Mamoru's side, he only knew it from the magazines. In particular, the one mentioning his brother's loss...

"Y-yeah, though it's weird to be recognized..."

"Trust me, it's all the way in the back of my head, your name." He said flatly. This gained him a chuckle, and he thought for a moment. "Actually, I think I might need your help."

A raised eyebrow. "Yeah...?"

"See, I don't know much about building decks..."

 **.**

"Hey, this is the Bermuda extra booster, right?" Yukio said, lifting up a pack and looking it over.

The manager tore his attention away from the cat that seemed to be trying to turn his keyboard into what his own computer looked like, turning towards the college student and nodding.

"Yes, that's the one. You play?" He asked, grabbing the cat and placing him on the edge of the counter. It gave him a disgruntled look before hopping off, walking over to the back.

"Mm, used to. Just a little." He said, staring at the pack thoughtfully. He then looked over to his friend, who was deep in conversation with a much younger looking boy.

At a sudden spark of inspiration, he snapped his fingers.

"I just got a _brilliant_ idea." He said. "Hey mister, how much is a whole box of this?"

 **.**

A knock at his door snapped Kyou out of his distracted haze, pulling himself out of his pile of cards.

While he had a deck, he didn't think it was a good idea to go back to it. Thinking about it brought back too many memories, and he didn't need something like nostalgia or regret distracting him at this time.

So he was making a new one. Granted, all his cards were mostly the same, since he'd only ever used Spike Brothers, but he was sure he could work something out...

Another knock, and he sighed, dropping the two Grade 3's he had been staring at.

"Alright, shut up, I'm coming!" He shouted, stomping over to the door. Upon opening it, a look od disdain came over him-

"Amazing, you guys make the _same_ faces when you're annoyed!"

"Go the fuck home!"

 _Oh god not him too_.

Kyou frowned as he watched the two bicker, the vague memories of meeting Yukio before coming back and making him feel a special kind of annoyance.

"You two can argue somewhere else for all I care, but what do you want?"

This stopped them immediately, Mamoru turning to him and crossing his arms, puffing out his chest.

"So it has come to my attention that I have not been doing a thorough job of being your big brother." He said, sounding completely sure of himself. Kyou raised an eyebrow.

"Really now?" He said, and Mamoru nodded.

"Yes, and seeing as you're already in middle school, I decided that this is something you should have, seeing as you're at the right age."

At that, he reached into his pocket and held out his hand, palm up, revealing to Kyou-

A Vanguard deck.

Kyou blinked a few times, unsure of exactly what he was seeing. He looked up at his brother, who responded by holding the deck closer. Every bit of suspicion inside him told him not to take it, but out of curiosity, Kyou couldn't help but lift the top card-

"You bastard!"

-and was greeted by the image of Mermaid Idol, Felucca. He grabbed the deck, which was apparently bound together except for that first card and threw it at the laughing male.

"It was a joke, a joke!" Mamoru laughed. "I swear I didn't plan to give it to you, but this guy-"

"It was completely my idea." Yukio said with a triumphant grin.

"-said it would be funny. And he was right, as scary as that sounds."

Kyou looked at both of them with a mix of astonishment and annoyance.

"You guys get along better than you let on, and _that's_ the scary part."

The two laughed again, but then Mamoru dug into his other pocket, this time holding his hand out downward. Kyou stared it with apprehension, and Mamoru let out a chuckle.

"This time it's for real." He said. He glanced at Yukio, who was backing away in the direction of Mamoru's room before taking off in a run. Awkwardly, he scratched the back of his head. "I know you're having some trouble at school right now, and that you have a fight coming up - I swear I'm not _stalking_ you, I just heard you talking on the phone when I passed by your room last night. Don't give me that look, I was going to the bathroom!"

Kyou rolled his eyes, but took the offered deck. This time he lifted the card up at an angle instead of flipping it completely, before looking at it. He blinked in surprise.

"Mamoru-nii, isn't this..."

"I went to that card shop, Capital or something?" Kyou nodded, so he continued. "There was this kid there that said he knew you, so I asked him for some help building a deck. Things got a little out of hand when his friends stepped in, but we got it done."

Kyou nodded again, flipping the deck over and shuffling through the cards. It was organized by grade, so it wasn't hard to get the main mechanic of the build.

"This... probably cost a lot. Are you sure you should be wasting this much time and money on a middle schooler's fight with a bully?" He asked, which got him a rough pat on the head.

"I said I haven't been doing my job as your big brother, right?" Mamoru said, his grin more cheerful this time. "Think of this as part of my contribution towards your brighter future. Can't do well in school if you're being pushed around by those assholes, right?"

Looking back at the deck, Kyou thought back briefly to the times Mamoru had dragged him out of his comfort zone just to try bonding with him. At first he thought it was just because his brother was bored, but this...

"... Thanks. Uh, I guess?" He said awkwardly. "You know there's nothing I can say to make this any less awkward, right?"

Mamoru chuckled and patted his shoulder, grin widening.

"Just make sure you kick some bully ass next week, alright? I don't want you coming home crying about not being able to read with your friends anymore!"

"Oh, shut up!"

 **.**

"You two are so awkward together, you really are brothers."

"You _totally_ plan on staying, don't you?"

Upon entering his room, Mamoru found the floor to be a mess of sheets and pillows, and his closet thrown open. Yukio sat on the floor, blanket over his head like a tarp and dressed suspiciously in what looked like pajamas.

"Did you plan this?" Mamoru asked, finally noticing the duffle bag next to what he assumed was where the man planned on sleeping.

"Of course not. I didn't look through your phone while you were licking your wounds, read your notes on your parents schedule and pack a night's worth of clothes planning to crash here tonight. Nope, not at all."

"You're a horrible friend."

Yukio responded by flipping over and curling up so he was completely covered by the blanket, like a giant pill bug. There was a muffled sound, and Mamoru kicked the him lightly.

"I can't hear you. Also, move over, I need to get to my computer."

The bundle rolled to the right, making enough space for him to pass by.

"I said, 'What are you going to do now'." Yukio said, popping his head out.

"Besides try for the next two hours to kick you out before I give in to the inevitable with a 'You're too old for slumber parties' line?" He got an enthusiastic nod. "I guess I'll... do homework."

"You're so boring. Where' my pillow fight."

"Sorry, I've got a working computer, and it's distracting _and_ part of my work description."

He turned his chair around, intent on doing exactly what he said he would do, but froze when he noticed the deck on his desk. He picked it up, turning back.

"What the hell is this." It wasn't even phrased as a question, and Yukio rolled back over so he was facing away.

"I paid for it, so I expect _one_ of you to get some use out of it." He said. Mamoru stared at him incredulously, though he couldn't see it.

"I am _not_ playing a children's card game, much less with mermaid idols!"

"You are now. Night."

There was a snap, and the lights abruptly turned off, causing Mamoru to swear and inwardly curse his automatic lighting.

"You manipulative son of a bitch..."

 **.**

A/N: So this chapter was more of a look into Mamoru's side of the story and an introduction for a new character. Any of you that know what "Yukio" means, or bother to look it up, you probably have a good idea of what's going to happen.

To be honest, the segment in the beginning went on for longer than I intended it to. Or rather, I intended for this to be a Mamoru chapter, but I didn't actually have anything planned other than "Mamoru gives Kyou a deck". Originally he was supposed to overhear Kyou talking about their fight, go to card capital, and get help building a deck. Then Yukio happened, and it all twisted itself in a odd way. Though that Bermuda thing was still going to happen, because I'd had that planned since season one and like hell I'm going back on it.

So hopefully you guys got a little enjoyment from watching Mamoru suffer from what will from today on be known as Underdog Hero's Vanguard incarnation. That wasn't my intent, but Yukio filled an empty character slot that I was having trouble with. Convenient.

Also, special Mamoru chapter suddenly ended up longer than all the previous chapters. I just got really into writing it...


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: It's slightly worrying when your freezer is defrosting and starts smelling like cyalume, which totally means fanfiction should be written, right? No, they're not completely unrelated, because I have homework I need to be doing but it's technically done, so no worries. Now if any of those were actually related, I'd be less confused.

On another note, I finally made a list of the voices I tend to attach to my characters when I'm writing dialogue. It's... basically what it sounds like.

(I'll admit I stared at the reviews page for a good two minutes before I figured out what I wanted to do for this chapter.)

Since I need to keep track of days because of "Through the Water" timeline issues, this is day five of pre-Asia Circuit, and three days into the Lit Club's week-long prep time. This chapter might also jumped around near the end, since we're going to be switching scenes a lot.

 **.**

A loud _thump_ echoed through the room, followed by two more and Kyou and Madoka deposited their burdens on the table, which creaked.

"Okay." Kyou huffed. "This is everything I've got from my time in Foo Fighters, and while it looks like a lot-" He patted both boxes. "-it might not be enough to build good decks. Usable, but not _good_."

The other two turned to Madoka, who grinned.

"I looked through everything last night, and I think I've got some good variety." He said, unzipping the large green binder. "Even though I stopped playing, I still bought packs from time to time, so we should be up-to-date with what's new."

Kyou nodded, opening both boxes and turning them over so that the cards spilled out. Yoshiro whistled while Akio made a noise of astonishment, clapping his hands softly.

"Those must have been heavy." Yoshiro commented. Then he narrowed his eyes. "You guys met up earlier and came here without me, right?"

Madoka chuckled nervously while Kyou rolled his shoulders, attempting to ease the slight pain that had developed.

"You would have offered to carry something, and we kinda wanted to talk about what we thought would work for you guys before we all met up."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. We had a few ideas based off your personalities, which we converted into play-styles." Madoka continued for him, flipping through the pages of his binder before settling on a page. "For Akio-kun, I feel like Kagerou might be a good choice, since it's easy to use and doesn't need much thinking."

"Oooh- wait, did you just dis me?" Akio said, admiration changing to mild annoyance and confusion.

"No." Madoka lied flatly. "But what do you think, does it work for you?"

Akio hummed, eyes scanning the pages presented to him, frowning.

"Somehow it... doesn't seem right?" He said, eyebrows furrowing together. "I mean, dragons are cool and all, but it just doesn't feel like my thing."

Madoka was about to speak, but Kyou cut him off.

"Works for me. Less Kagerou, the better." He said, earning a glare from the brunet. "What, don't give me that look! Besides, I told you they'd be better off picking their own clans, you can't just force this."

"I get what you're saying, but..." Madoka folded his arms, lifting one so that his fist was under his chin, humming in thought. "Alright, go ahead and look through what we've got. Um, should I take these out?"

Kyou shook his head. Their cards would simply get mixed up, and while he didn't mind if he lost a few, it would be a pain to put them back in the other boy's binder anyway.

He turned to Yoshiro, who had been quietly shuffling through Kyou's cards. He had a bored, yet thoughtful look on his face.

"I suggest picking a Grade 3 first, at least though." Madoka said, gaining everyone's attention again. "If you decide on that first, then building the deck around it will become much easier, since then we'll know what to go on."

Kyou nodded. "I agree. Better to go in with a plan than charge in recklessly and end up having to change things, right?"

He didn't know why he felt some strange sense of irony with those words.

"Ah, what's this one do!" Akio exclaimed, lifting up a card and showing it to the two of them. They both stepped closer together to see which card he'd pulled up, surprising both of them.

"Battle Sister, Monaka?" They both read aloud, exchanging a worried look. Akio lost some of his enthusiasm at their expressions, lowering his arm slightly.

"No good?" He asked, embarrassed. Madoka shook his head.

"No, not no good. It's just..." He thought for a moment about the best way to explain. "Monaka relies on Persona Blasts, which means having several copies of her in your hand to fully utilize her abilities."

"And since you're only allowed four copies max of each unit, while one is in the Vanguard circle, you've got a three in whatever-amount-of-cards-in-your-deck-that-turn chance of pulling them. She's a lot better late-game too, where your opponent will be rushing things, so you'll have a lot of fodder for guarding."

Akio looked very lost.

"To put it simply," Madoka said with a laugh. "Offensively, she's not too good, since she doesn't pack a lot of firepower. Defensively, if you can play her right, she can be really good. But only if you have enough support to get the last three copies into your hand."

Akio raised a hand, and Kyou pointed at him, signalling the OK to speak.

"I understood about every fifth word. Can you just tell me if I can use it?" He said, not even embarrassed anymore. Both boys sighed.

"Yes, you can use her." Kyou said. "But we'll have to teach you how to use the deck, and we still need to see if we have enough support to make her usable."

"That was all I needed to hear!" The younger male said, raising a fist in the air.

 _Why's he so happy?_ Kyou wondered, glancing at Madoka. The boy had a slightly strained but amused smile on his face, as if he were watching a puppy play tug-of-war,.

"Sorry to interrupt." Yoshiro said, holding his own card up. "But I wanna know how I can use this."

He turned the card around so they could see, and Kyou couldn't say he was surprised.

"Looks like a good choice, matches you well." He said with a grin. When Yoshiro frowned, he waved it off. "I'll work on Akio's deck, Madoka can help you with yours. So let's-"

He was cut off by the sound of the morning bell.

"... get back to this after school."

 **.**

At said time, the four were surprised to see Masuyo already waiting in the club room, a disgruntled look on her face.

"You guys totally left me out." She said darkly. Madoka laughed nervously, not moving from his place at the door.

"We didn't mean to, honest. We just forgot."

"I'm sure."

She didn't sound as angry as Kyou thought she would, seeing as they hadn't seen her since the incident a few days ago. He was sure Madoka and probably Akio had checked in on her after she stormed out, but he didn't know how the situation was right now.

"So I'm assuming you know what's going on?" Yoshiro asked, shoving his way into the room when neither of them made to move. Masuyo huffed a sigh.

"News travels fast, boy." She said with a wave. "Everyone's talking about how the Cardfight Club is going to kick your asses and get themselves a new room. You're all insane, you know?"

"We know." Kyou said, making his way over to where they'd stashed their cards. "But if we weren't, we wouldn't have this chance."

A hum, and there was a slam behind him. Turning around, he saw Masuyo standing, hands on the table. There was a determined glint in her eyes.

"I want in." She said. Her tone left no room for argument, but someone felt the need to interject.

"What about cooking?" Yoshiro asked, grabbing the other box despite Kyou's earlier protests. "Surely your brothers will be _pissed_ to hear you're hanging with us again?"

Masuyo grinned.

"This'll teach them not to mess with their little sister. They should have known better than to try controlling me."

They stared at each other for a moment, before Yoshiro sighed, placing the box on the table.

"Alright. Besides, I planned on counting this as your club credit, so if you _hadn't_ shown up you would have been in some serious trouble."

"You would, you asshole."

The atmosphere lightened again, and Kyou caught Madoka's smile as he came over to retrieve his binder.

"It's like before again, isn't it?" He whispered, and Kyou nodded.

"Yeah, too bad the stakes are so high..."

"Uh, guys?"

Four pairs of eyes were immediately on the doorway, where Akio was rubbing the back of his neck.

"Sorry to kill the mood, but I gotta get going. You know, stuff and... stuff." He didn't elaborate and he took off with a 'See you tomorrow!', leaving some of them very confused.

 _What's he in such a rush for?_

 **.**

After running Masuyo through the same explanation they'd given Yoshiro and Akio that morning - though with less confusion, as she was actually listening - they spent the time filtering out their cards. The girl hadn't decided on her choice of clan yet though, but it was fine, since there was no rush.

She wasn't allowed to participate in the match anyway, something which annoyed her to no end. But she brushed it off by saying at the least she could provide morale support.

The idea that one of them wouldn't be competing did nothing to calm Kyou's nerves though, mind racing with field plans and deck builds with lingering thoughts of _"If you mess up, that's it."_

 _Can't pull any punches, huh..._

The sound of high-pitched laughter snapped him back to reality, pausing on his way home. Blinking and looking around, he realized he'd made a wrong turn and ended up some ways away from his usually path.

 _I must really be out of it today_. With the intent of turning around and finding his way back, something caught his eye. _Is that... Akio_?

He turned fully so he was facing the gates of what he realized was the church he saw every day, right down the road from Card Capital. Outside the building, children ran around happily, surrounding a familiar figure.

Akio stood in the middle of a small crowd, stepping around some of them as they attempted to knock him down. He had a smaller, much younger looking child - probably a toddler - on his shoulders, clinging to his head and pulling at his hair as she shouted encouragement.

And he was smiling. A much wider, _real_ smile that he'd only seen a few times during their club.

After standing there for what seemed like hours, Akio's eyes finally met his, and they both jumped at the realization.

 _Busted..._

 **.**

"So, uh, this is my senior and fellow literature club member, Yahagi Kyou..."

Akio looked very awkward as he attempted to introduce Kyou to the lady in charge of the establishment - he wasn't religious, so he wasn't too sure about terminology - that all the kids referred to as "Mother Aya", which to him sounded rather strange.

He'd somehow ended up in this situation when the kids realized they had a visitor and immediately began to make a _lot_ of noise, resulting in the woman coming out to see what was happening. Cue Akio attempting to calm the children while making his way over to his schoolmate, trying to explain that "no, he isn't some creeper that liked watching little kids, and he isn't that much older than them anyway so _shut up_ " which must have looked quite amusing to anyone watching.

Then he'd been invited in, which he found hard to reject without looking like a judgmental jerk and possibly giving Akio some serious self-confidence issues when they saw each other at school tomorrow.

He didn't need that much awkwardness in his school life, thank you very much. As it was they had enough problems.

"Um, nice to meet you?" He said, inclining his head slightly. The woman just smiled.

"So you're Yahagi-kun then? Akio has talked so much about your club, it's nice to finally meet you." She spoke in a nice, even tone that eased his nerves slightly. She looked between both of them, possibly noticing the tense air surrounding them, and smiled again. "It seems like you two need to talk for a bit, so I'll go make some snacks. It's almost time anyway, and we'd be very happy if you joined us, if you have the time."

He had time. He had time, even if he didn't think it would be okay. But one look at Akio's face told him he should at least stay for a while, if only to clear up whatever was weighing on the boy's mind.

"That would be nice." He said with a nod and a tiny, slightly forced smile. If she noticed, she didn't say anything, turning and calling for the children to follow her to help with preparations.

Once they were out of their line of sight, both boys let out whatever breath they'd been holding since they saw each other at the gate. Kyou turned to Akio.

"Alright, I can tell you want to explain _something_ , so go ahead." He said, with none of the polite tone he used in the nun's presense. Akio scratched his cheek, a noise hat sounded a mix of paranoia and confusion slipping from his throat.

"Well, I was kinda hoping you'd ask questions first." He said with a shrug. "Would make this 'explaining' thing a lot easier."

Kyou sighed, walking over to the picnic table nearby and gestured for Akio to follow. He did, and they sat down, Kyou leaning against the old wood.

"Then I'll start with, why are you so scared all of a sudden? It's not like I care if you're religious, and I doubt you're letting it affect you. I mean, you and Madoka are friendly."

Akio let out a strained laugh, something that sounded so... wrong, coming from him.

"I'm not religious by choice." He said, looking up at the church building. "I grew up here, for as long as I can remember I've always been here."

Kyou blinked. While he'd known that Akio wasn't heavily faithful, the last part of his statement caught his attention. "So, you mean..."

"Yeah. Orphan. Never knew my mom, but I have a picture of my dad. Mama Aya says he dropped me off here when I was a few months old."

Kyou didn't exactly know what to say. This information was new to him, and he wasn't entirely sure _he_ should be the one hearing this, seeing as he was probably the least likely person to feel sympathy. But he felt it, if only slightly, and if only because Akio was his _friend_.

"Oh. Uh, sorry, I'm probably not..."

"No, it's fine. Madokan and Masyu-san already know, they found out when they were tutoring me and came over."

 _Wasn't too long ago then_... He thought, silently glad he wasn't the only one. _Though, I guess I can't blame him._

"I didn't mean to hide it, honest." Akio continued, snapping Kyou out of his thoughts. "It just never came up. I mean, I've mentioned the Sisters a few times-"

Kyou absently reached up to feel his pendant.

"-but I guess I never outright mentioned I was living in a church." He finished, then sighed. "Ahh, talking like this makes it sound more depressing than it really is. I mean, I'm not the only one, right? It's not that big a deal anyway, I probably have it the easiest here."

At Kyou's confused look, he continued.

"A lot of the younger kids here have it worse. The church doubles as an orphanage, so kids of different backgrounds are brought here for one reason or another. Some leave, some stay, and some are like me." He paused to take a breath. "I'm the oldest though. No one else has stayed a whole thirteen years like I have."

Kyou sat there quietly, before folding his hands under his chin.

"Well, I can't I blame you for not wanting to talk about it." _We're in somewhat of the same boat, after all..._

Unaware of his thoughts, Akio nodded.

"That's about it though. I'm not depressed or anything, it's great here! Oh, I bet when you saw Mama you thought, 'Wow, this feels like a shady movie where the church is secretly a cult'... nope! Not at all, just a regular Christian church. In name only though. Besides daily prayers, we don't really have many restrictions."

Kyou couldn't help the small laugh that slipped out.

"Yeah, I can tell with you." He said, and laughed more when Akio pouted.

"What's that supposed to mean, I'm totally restrained!" He said, waving his arms widely. "Like, I'm not allowed to have sweets before dinner, and I have to go to bed at nine o'clock sharp!"

"That's _normal_ , stupid."

A second of silence, and both boys burst out laughing. Once it died down, they noticed the voices calling them over to the building, where some of the kids were waving. Akio turned to Kyou.

"Gonna stay for snack time? We're having pudding today~!"

He trailed off in a way that Kyou figured was supposed to sound tempting, so he simply pushed away the fingers poking at his face and stood up, smiling.

"Alright."

 **.**

"I keep telling you, we can't just toss them _all_ in there! That would ruin the balance of the deck!"

"But they're all what I want to use!"

"They're not all what you _can_ use, dumbass!"

Kyou glared when Akio, crossed his arms, pouting and turning away. They'd spent the whole morning and now a good fifteen minutes of lunch arguing over the deck, because Akio wanted to use _all_ of the Battle Sisters they had available, while Kyou refused to let him.

"Somehow, they seem a lot closer than before..."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Madoka watching them with a smile, before he turned back to the mess of cards between him and Yoshiro - they'd folded up the table and shoved it in a corner, deciding that there was more space if they just worked on the floor - while Masuyo sat behind him, leaning back so their backs were pressed together while she shuffled through some cards.

Opting to separate the cards he thought would work in Akio's Monaka deck from the cards he _knew_ wouldn't work, he began stacking them according to grade. After a moment Akio began helping, former annoyance gone.

There was a sudden knock on the door, and Yoshiro called out a "Come in!"

The door creaked open, and Kyou saw a familiar head of grey-black hair pop in.

The moment he saw the slip of paper in the boy's hands, he was feeling a strong sense of déjà vu.

"Um, I'd like to... join the literature club..."

 **.**

A/N: Aaaaand, safe! Wow, that took a lot longer, which probably means this chapter is a lot longer than what I usually write. Please. I hope. There wasn't any good place to stop in this chapter, since this was a point I had planned for a while that _would_ have started sooner, but couldn't for plot reasons. There was some trouble near the end of the first scene, where I planned for some other characters to appear but decided against because it would ruin the flow of the story. So instead, I opted to delay it in favor or Akio's backstory and will write it in next chapter.

So... Akio. Guess a lot of you didn't expect that, right? I hope? You guys probably did, seeing as I wasn't really hiding it. It was actually supposed to be a lot more serious, and there was actually a line of dialogue I had to fight to add in, since Akio insisted on writing the scene himself. But this basically went the way I planned it to, just with some late arrivals and maybe an extra chapter of prep.

As of the end of this chapter, they're on say four of their prep peroid. It may not matter to you guys, but I need to keep note of it somewhere, and here seems the safest place.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: You know what's really fucking frustrating? When you're 2/3 of the way done with a chapter and your computer dies, then having to retype the entire thing because you thought it was plugged in... Not even Mafumafu's cover of "Sugar Song and Bitter Step" can make things better, but I'm keeping it on repeat anyway. Needless to say, I'm saving every five words.

Anyway, we're still on day four of prep this chapter. I don't think it's going to change until the end.

As for response to a guest review: The way their school works, only the club president has to approve new members, since all the club has to do is submit a member count every new term. As you may recall, Kyou joined their club relatively quick, as did Masuyo and Akio. The only reason they didn't attend the day of was because they didn't have the forms on-hand. In Nakuro's case, he has the form, so once he's submitted it to Yoshiro, he's in. As for leaving, if a member leaves in the middle of a term, the club president has to approve it and submit a new form to the council alerting them of the change in numbers. Masuyo had a problem with this because her brother denied it, or rather, he just didn't turn it in. Therefor, in the school's records, she's still part of the cooking club. The only reason the Lit club was able to operate was because it was still the middle of the term, so there was nothing to turn in and visually, they had five members.

... And it's not like Hagane could reject Nakuro's application anyway, since as long as the student's grades are at the right level, they're allowed to join whatever club they want and he has no reason to say "NO" without looking like a discriminate asshole(which he probably looks like anyway right now). For students with low grades, they'll be pulled from club activities until their grades are back up. Akio didn't do this because he and Hagane have issues, and it's "the student's responsibility" he says.

That explanation was a little long, but hopefully clears up any questions or accusations.

 **.**

The first one to respond to their newcomer was, surprisingly, Akio.

He jumped up, running up to Nakuro and threw his hands around the boy's shoulders.

"Nakkun! I thought you were making poisons with the chem club!"

 _They know each other?_ Kyou thought, watching the two.

Nakuro didn't respond to the hug immediately, pupils quivering in an odd way before glancing at the other boy before sighing.

"That red... Akio?" He said irritably. He was referring to the few bright red strands left in Akio's hair, which had begun fading back to its original brown shade.

"I knew you'd recognize me!" Akio said, sounding far too happy. Kyou watched in mild disbelief, thinking back to the other day and trying to connect the Akio he'd had a heart-to-heart conversation with to... this one, which was giggling and nuzzling the other first-year.

The others were pointedly ignoring this show of affection, pretending like Akio didn't exist. When he showed no sign of stopping, Yoshiro cleared his throat. Masuyo rolled her eyes.

"Yo, no extreme PDA. Besides, you're friend looks ready to murder you."

He didn't really. There was an expression of mild annoyance and _maybe_ murder, but it wasn't noticeable unless you looked closely.

Akio lifted his head, opening his mouth to say something, but was cut off by a sharp jab to the gut. This sent him crumpling to the floor, holding his stomach and shaking.

"Nakkun... that was a low blow." He said, voiced strained.

"Very." Nakuro said, with no trace of remorse. He looked around the room before his gaze settled on Kyou. "Ah, Yahagi-senpai."

Kyou sighed when he felt his friend's gazes on him, standing and making his way to the younger boy. He took the application that was held out to him, glancing at it briefly before handing it to Yoshiro, who had followed him.

"I thought you were already in the chem club." Akio coughed, standing up and rubbing his stomach. "Did they feed you something weird that made you finally want to leave?"

Both boys ignored the alarm on Kyou and Yoshiro's faces, Nakuro simply shrugging.

"Not this time... just got tired." He said. Akio nodded solemnly, seemingly understanding without further details. Kyou wanted to cut in, but was cut off when Yoshiro spoke up first.

"Well, everything looks like it's in order, so there's no reason to reject you." The _'I'd be an idiot to say no anyway'_ was left unsaid, but understood by the room's occupants. Well, most of them.

"So I can start today?" Nakuro said excitedly, smiling. Yoshiro nodded, but seeing that the gesture wasn't registered by the boy in front of him, he gave a mumbled "sure".

"You joined at a pretty awkward time though." He said, scratching the back of his head. Nakuro tilted his head, eyes quivering again. While Yoshiro took a moment to figure out what to say, Kyou took a chance to study them a little, noticing something... strange.

Stranger than when they first met.

Before he could ask about it, he was cut off once again.

"We're actually in the middle of a problem, so this is going to sound really weird considering the kind of club we are, but... how well do you know Vanguard?"

There was a moment of silence as Nakuro hummed, thinking.

"I play." He said, and the tense atmosphere faded away almost immediately. While he dug around in his bag for something, Yoshiro gave Akio a look, to which the first-year returned with an incredulous 'What?'

Before he could say anything, Nakuro pulled out a sleek black deck case, shaking it so that the deck fell into his hand. He held it out, and Yoshiro gave Kyou a sort of pleading look, to which he rolled his eyes. He took their leader's place in front of the, taking the deck and flipping it over, raising his eyebrows slightly.

"Dimension Police... and Dimensional Robos too. Power-player?" He asked, looking back up at the boy. Nakuro thought for a moment, eyes shifting slightly before nodding.

"Just a little."

Something seemed odd about th response, but before Kyou could question him, Akio stepped in.

"Alright! That's our fifth member then, one hurdle cleared!" He cheered, throwing an arm over the shorter boy again. He didn't get another jab to the stomach, but Nakuro's expression darkened significantly.

"Okay, then we'll get back to preparing for our match. Akio, you fill in Onodera-"

"Nakuro." Said boy interrupted, eyes gleaming slightly. Yoshiro sighed.

"Fill in Nakuro about the situation, and see if he wants to help you with your deck. God knows you're too difficult for even a pro to handle." He glanced at Kyou briefly, who shrugged.

The two nodded, Akio pulling Nakuro over to their spot on the floor. After a moment of hesitation, Kyou followed, watching the two closely.

He didn't comment on how Nakuro had Akio read each of the cards to him, not taking a single one to look at himself. Nor how Akio seemed all to ready to do so, taking it all in stride.

His suspicions only furthered at this.

 **.**

"Hey, can I ask you something?"

Kyou caught Nakuro on the way to club after school, waiting in the stairwell closest to the room. Nakuro gave him a confused look before nodding, sitting next to him on the bottom step.

"I was just wondering... with the way your eyes are, how are you going to manage playing?" He finally asked, the question coming out easier than he thought.

Nakuro didn't answer right away, looking around the empty stairwell before taking out his deck again.

"Feel the text." He said, handing Kyou the first card that he pulled out; Daibrave.

Kyou did as told, taking the card and running his thumb over the name. His eyes widened.

"There's also a type of paint on it so I know without having to touch it." The other boy continued. Kyou whistled.

"How did you get this approved? You're not allowed to alter cards and use them in competition." He said, handing the card back. Nakuro hummed, slipping it back into his deck. He smiled.

"That's a secret." He said, holding a finger up to his lips. "I was told not to talk about it. But this is a legal deck, you don't have to worry about that."

Kyou figured it was best not to question any further. He didn't want to pry, and it wasn't that important anyway. Instead, he stood up, watching as Nakuro imitated him.

"Let's go then."

 **.**

Less than fifteen minutes into club time - which was spent organizing and rebuilding their decks - the door was thrown open. Upon seeing who it was, Kyou felt a _strong_ feeling of disdain.

"Go the fuck home!" He shouted, grabbing a dictionary from the shelf next to him and throwing it as hard as he could. It was blocked by the box the man held, who gave him an incredulous look.

"What the hell? Is that any way to greet your amazing brother who comes bearing gifts?" Mamoru said, expression a mix of shock and amusement. Behind him, there was laughter, which he frowned at. "Yeah, you're only laughing because it's not _your_ sibling trying to kill you."

"Don't have siblings." Yukio said, pushing him in. Upon seeing Kyou's guarded stance, he waved. "Yo, little brother!"

"Don't talk to me." Kyou said indignantly. "What are you doing here? Don't you both have school?"

"Kyou..." Madoka said hestitantly, jumped when both men looked at him. "Uh, h-hi?"

Kyou sighed, attempting to tune out the new conversation going on. Mamoru had begun introducing himself and Yukio, who was looking around the room but being physically restrained by the other man. Someone nudged his elbow, and he turned to see Masuyo behind him.

"You gonna explain this?" She asked, watching the two. Kyou groaned, running a hand down his face.

"I don't even know. They're both insane." He said. He frowned when Mamoru turned to him.

"You make it sound like we came here to play." He said with a pout.

"Though that's half the reason." Yukio said, yelping when Mamoru elbowed him. "We're here to drop something off. Figured you'd need it if you're building decks."

He crouched down next to the box that Mamoru dropped on the floor, ripping off the tape and opening it. Kyou came over to check what it was, and looked at his brother in shock.

"You were serious when you said you bought a ton of packs to build that deck, weren't you?" He said, moving aside to let Madoka see what was inside.

Recalling what his brother had told him the morning after he'd been given his new deck, he wasn't too surprised that it was filled to the brim with Vanguard cards, most of which were from the newer packs; Madoka confirmed this himself.

"Are you sure it's fine if we use these?" He said worriedly, to which Mamoru waved it off.

"They're useless to us, and you guys are going to need all the help you can get, right? I doubt middle schoolers have much money to buy new cards."

It stung, but it was true. No matter how many cards Madoka and Kyou had between themselves - possibly a little more, as Nakuro mentioned having some that they could use - it wasn't nearly enough to perfect the builds they had in mind.

It was, to Kyou's displeasure, a huge help.

"And besides, what kind of epic heroes would we be if we just left a bunch of little kids to fend for themselves?" Yukio added happily, causing Mamoru to sigh. Kyou was going to repeat the action, until he saw the look on Nakuro's face.

"Hero..." His eyes were _sparkling_ , and not just figuratively. Akio laughed.

"This guy's got some kind of weird hero complex, so your words just hit home." He said, patting the boy on the back. Nakuro didn't notice, instead still watching Yukio intently.

"Is that so?" Yukio said, crouching down and studying him carefully. "You've got really expressive eyes, you know that?"

Kyou thought he was going to be brushed off like the rest of them when he pointed something out about Nakuro, but it seemed claiming to be a "hero" did more in his favor.

"It's the contacts. They react to heart rate, so they tend to change shape. I think my dad did it on purpose when he made them." Nakuro said, in the fullest sentence Kyou heard from him all day. Yukio laughed.

"Wow, that's super creepy. But really cool too." He reached out, ruffling the younger boy's hair. Nakuro didn't look offended at all, instead a strange mix of embarrassed and happy. Yukio began to say something else, buy Mamoru tapped him on the shoulder.

"We're gonna be late for your presentation." He said, pointing to the door. Yukio gave him a sour look before standing up, waving at the group.

"We'll stop by again when we have the time! I'll tell you all about the game I'm working on!" he said, following his friend out the door.

Mamoru looked back, meeting Kyou's eyes. He blinked, before realizing what the look meant, nodding.

 _"You better do your best." Of course._

 **.**

A/N: Having to retype the entirety of this chapter was a pain, but it gave me a chance to add in things I forgot to last time. This was all meant to happen last chapter and mix in with Akio's background, but I separated them for plot reasons. I think it looks better this way anyway, and it's not all squished together into one chapter.

So there's Nakuro joining the gang, and we get to see the only relevant adult combo in the current arc. No one else counts, not even in canon.

Not much left to say other than... this took a long time to complete, but it was easy to finish. Next chapter will be the start of day five, which I still haven't figured out yet. Because unlike other fics I have planned, I don't make notes of this series since that makes it harder to write. So excuse me while I try to figure out what's next. But feel free to point out any mistakes I made, since I go through editing really fast and miss a lot.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: So now that's I've mostly gotten over the pain of chapter 280 of Magi(not really, but it looks better if I say it, right?) I figured it's time to update. I didn't put much thought into this chapter, since there isn't _actually_ much left before the big match... but at the same time, I didn't want to just skip a whole two-three days of fillers just to get the plot moving!

Aren't I a great person?

But anyway, according to last chapter this should be day... five of prep? Excuse me while I spend the whole chapter trying to remember what day this started on... I'll try to move it on the best I can, but pacing is a thing and it can't be helped. Maybe we'll get through day six in this chapter- actually, that's what I intend to do. Think of this the same way I managed through the festival last season.

 **.**

Despite the shortened classes, Madoka never really liked Saturdays.

"It feels like a waste of time, you know? Either make us come to school or don't."

"You're only saying that because you always sleep in and miss the first hour."

One good thing about it though - if they were part of a club, that was all they had to do. Which gave them plenty of time to work on their decks.

Although things didn't change much; Yoshiro was still having trouble getting his ace into his hand for him to be able to put their strategy into effect. It was times like these Madoka hated how luck-based the game was, even if it was a little exciting.

On Kyou's side of things, he could tell they were doing a little better, seeing as they had _two_ regular players to explain things to Akio. Nakuro was doing a good job fitting in so far, which he was glad for, since the boy was rather pleasant to have around. He almost reminded Madoka of the "old" him, as Yoshiro liked to jokingly put it, back before their little group came together.

 _The "old" me... not like I can remember it_.

The thought always came and went - he knew there were problems with his memory, but there was little he'd done to fix it. Yoshiro always brushed it off, insisting it wasn't something that needed immediate attention. His grandparents claimed they had no idea what was wrong.

Then again, he wouldn't be surprised. Although he lived with them, it was Yoshiro that accompanied him on his trips to the hospital.

 _And Toshiki wants me to rejoin the family. What's there to come back to?_

His thoughts continued to darken, blocking out the happenings around him, until he heard someone snap directly in front of him.

"Hey, idiot, I'm trying to talk to you."

It took a moment for his eyes to focus on the boy in front of him. Yoshiro looked slightly confused and a little annoyed, but after studying his friend's face briefly, the latter emotion disappeared and was replaced with something akin to fatigue. He spoke softly to avoid drawing attention.

"Stop thinking about those things. They're not important right now."

Despite his better judgement - his urge to talk, vent, and his need for _closure_ \- he found himself nodding, cheerfully asking Yoshiro what his question was.

 _Not important, huh_...

In the end, they weren't able to make much progress.

"It's just too luck-based." He groaned, throwing himself back to he was on his back. "There aren't many units with a skill that lets you choose what card you can pull from the deck, and the ones that do are too few for us to properly utilize. I guess we'll just have to leave it up to fate and hope for the best."

They were the only ones in the room. Akio had to leave early, as per usual, and Masuyo followed while saying she had to study for her exams, which were only a few months away. Kyou and Nakuro had left together as well, something about wanting to make sure they could still use their decks properly.

Everyone had something to do. Everyone but them.

"You make it sound like we've already lost." Yoshiro sighed, leaning back against the bookshelf. Instead of being scattered around the floor like they had been the past few days, the cards they were working with had been packed away into their respective binders and boxes. With the addition of Nakuro's cards and the ones given to them by Mamoru, their supply had increased greatly, and so did their variety.

They had the decks built. They just needed to now how to _use_ them. And it wasn't going well.

"Vanguard is seventy-five percent luck." He said, waving a hand. "The other twenty-five percent is strategy - figuring out what to do with what luck gives you. So every game is a win/lose, and it's usually not in your favor."

He heard Yoshiro click his tongue, but the other boy didn't say anything. Instead, he picked up the deck they'd built, flipping over the top card.

"To be honest, I don't think I'm suited for this." He said, holding the card out for Madoka to see when he rolled over. "Being a leader, being able to win, leading everyone to victory. It's just too out of character for me."

Madoka waited, seeing if he would continue. When he didn't, he sat up.

"Who would you say is?" He asked, shifting so that they were face-to-face. Yoshiro hummed, flipping the deck over a few times.

"Kyou." He said finally. Madoka stifled a laugh, and Yoshiro grinned lazily. "He seems like he's had experience with this, either leading or being led. Remember how he handled this whole situation? He was completely calm, rational, and I was just screaming my head off."

"You've never been good at keeping calm." Madoka sighed, shaking his head. "Though I'm no better. We were both a mess before everyone came together. You always got into fights, I was always the reason..."

He trailed off, sliding over to the bookshelf and settling in next to Yoshiro. He took the deck and slowly began shuffling it, more to have something to do rather than sit around staring.

"... You know," He said, feeling Yoshiro's gaze on him. "This whole situation is really messed up. We didn't do anything wrong, so why are we being treated like this? Ever since fifth grade, Hagane's been on our case. I thought things would get better once we went to different schools, but..."

"... But then he appeared on the class roster, and it all went to hell." Yoshiro finished for him, pulling up on knee to rest his chin on. Madoka nodded.

"He's... really the worst. I don't understand why he's so insistent on picking on me, on picking fights with you. This has to be the worst thing he's done though, attacking our club and friends directly."

He was rambling now, but Yoshiro wasn't stopping him, so he assumed it was okay to keep talking.

"He knows that I can't play sports officially, and we know he'll just make the other clubs push me away, so my only option would be to join the student council. I know we're not the only ones he pesters, but why do we have to have it so bad?"

There was a tug on his sleeve, but he didn't look up. He began shuffling faster, the cards gliding over his fingers easily. Another tug.

"Madoka-"

"Hey."

He didn't wince when he felt the cards slice his finger, instead staring intently at the line of red as they fell from his grip.

"If we never knew him... if we'd never met Hagane, would our lives be better? If he never existed..."

Yoshiro was gripping his arm now, reaching for his injured hand and inspecting the cut before sighing.

"You know, Madoka, about Hagane..." He paused, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a band-aid. He unwrapped it, not looking the other boy in the eye as he wrapped it around his finger. "There's... probably a lot you don't know. Like..."

Once the band-aid was secure, he looked up.

"If Hagane never existed, _we_ would have never met."

 **.**

Sunday.

One more day.

One more day until their match with the Cardfight Club, and Kyou would have to admit, he was feeling nervous.

He could tell Akio was too, judging by the way they walked towards their destination.

Akio was all nerves, hands stuffed in his pockets and looking around, jumping from foot-to-foot occasionally. Kyou had a feeling it wasn't _just_ the realization that the match was tomorrow.

No, it was probably the fact that Nakuro was so calm, despite the fact that he'd invited them over so suddenly.

 _"Akio still needs help with his deck, so... do you guys wanna come over to my place after lunch?"_

He didn't question where it came from. Nakuro most likely knew Akio's situation, and the way Kyou reacted to his brother showing up at their school meant his house wasn't an option either.

While it would have been the logical choice to go to Nakuro's house, something felt... off.

"Um, it should be right around the corner here... all the way at the end." Nakuro said, pointing in the general direction of hsi house. Kyou followed his gaze, looking around for a moment before finding what he was looking for.

"That one right there?" He asked, grabbing the boy's arm and turning him in the right direction. Nakuro blinked when he was released, then smiled.

"Yeah, that's it." _How does this kid get home...?_

When they turned the corner, Kyou had to suppress the shiver that ran down his spine at the sight

Nakuro's house was, indeed, at the very end of the street. It was a dead end too, being located in the suburbs of Tokyo, but that wasn't the biggest giveaway.

A dark aura flowed out from the house, giving it a horrific effect. The wooden fence was white, but the paint had all but chipped off completely, leaving it looking decrepit and worn-down.

The house itself was the scary part though. It looked old, the paint chipping and curling, while the steps had several holes in them. One of the windows was boarded up, another was shut, and one on the upper floor was wide open, the curtain sticking out and fluttering in the wind. There was a garden, but it was small, and noticeably far away from the house.

Kyou was really glad he wasn't the mailman. He couldn't imagine coming here every morning. Hell, he couldn't imagine _living_ here.

"Nakkun, I know you can't see why, but I _reeeaaally_ hate coming to your house!" Akio whined, hiding behind Kyou and clinging to his arm. Nakuro turned to them - or their general direction - startling them when there was a _bang_ from inside the house.

"What do you mean? It's been like this since... before I got his with whatever that was." He said vaguely. "My grandparents lived here with their parents, and we stayed here too... did I forget to mention they were also chemists? So the house kinda..."

Kyou and Akio both jumped when there was another loud noise, and Nakuro turned to the house with a slightly scornful look.

"Dad's home..." He said, not bothering to hide the distaste. He walked up to the gate, reaching out and attempting to find the latch before opening it, waving for Kyou and Akio to follow. They exchanged a look, and after a moment of hesitation, followed.

At the front door, Nakuro jiggled the knob a few times before sighing and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a small, neon green key and fumbled with the lock for a moment before throwing the door open.

The resulting bang was _much_ louder than the first one, and the door frame groaned.

"I'm home." He said casually, pocketing the key and stepping inside. He slipped off his sneakers as Kyou and Akio followed, looking around. "Dad!"

There was a thump from somewhere deeper in, and a muffled "coming!" before a tall man with shaggy black hair wandered in, rubbing his head. When he looked at them, his face brightened despite his surroundings.

"Nakuro! I was wondering where you went... you brought friends?"

He immediately honed in one Kyou and Akio. As if on impulse, Akio defaulted to his usual cheery attitude, stepping forward.

"Good afternoon, Aoba-san! It's me, Akio!" He said, causing the man to blink. He looked at Akio closely, then smiled.

"Right, Akio-kun! You came here last time to... work on a project, right? How did that go?"

"We passed with flying colors!" He replied, waving his hands widely. "Literally, that rainbow-filled balloon of yours flew all over the room!"

Kyou gave him a confused look, wondering just _when_ this happened, but Nakuro seemed to know what he was thinking.

"It was for biology early in the year... we had to combine something related to nature with something man-made." He explained. At his, the man turned to Kyou.

"And you are? I don't think Nakuro's ever brought anyone but Akio over before." He said thoughtfully. Kyou shook his head.

"I'm Yahagi. Uh, Yahagi Kyou. I'm a year above them, we only met recently..." He said as coherantly as he could. There was something in the air, something that stung his nose and made him feel dizzy. Nakuro's father nodded.

"I see, Yahagi-kun... well, you three should probably head upstairs. I'm working on something and it would be best you don't stay down here."

They didn't argue, Nakuro immediately leading the way up the stairs. At a quick glance to the floor, Kyou noticed a long, seemingly endless streak of neon green, just like Nakuro's key. Akio noticed him, and grinned.

"You know that Nakkun can only see really intense or bright colors, right? This is how he gets around the neighborhood too, the committee allowed his papa to put a path down so he could find their house, since it's not the brightest..."

"I can hear you both." Nakuro said, stopping at a door in the middle of the hallway and opening it.

When he looked inside, and Kyou only had one thought.

"You'd get along with Madoka." He said, looking around.

While it wasn't as cluttered - or creepy - as Madoka's room, there was quite a large amount of stuffed animals and toys in the room. It wasn't messy though, it just looked... lived-in?

"I'm aware. He mentioned rabbits a lot..." The boy said, kicking aside a toy robot. He led them to a table by the window, the same one - Kyou realized - they'd seen outside. He pulled the curtain in, but didn't close it, instead fixing it so it didn't fall out. Once they'd settled in, they pulled out their decks.

Both Akio and Nakuro looked at him, and he nodded.

"So... let's start, I guess."

 **.**

A/N: Madoka and Yoshiro's segment was supposed to last a lot longer that that, but it feels like the Kyou/Akio/Nakuro portion was longer? Also, it's really stupid how often I've had to look back at old ADT chapters just to make sure I'm getting my facts right. The same facts I made, ironically. Figures I can't even remember my own plot.

So... we're finally there. I've managed to work out the order of fights, but I plan on writing the fights as they come, since it'll be too much work trying to figure out who has what in their hand. Fights are going to last at least one to two chapters each, depending on how much content I have for them.

Oh, and some people from season one are going to be reappearing again. Let's see who can guess who they are first.

(I've also put up a link to the song I'm using as the theme song for this series, on my profile under the "background" section. Check it out if you want, since I feel like it relates to this series quite a bit. But explaining why would mean spoilers, and we can't have that-)


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: So my internet is down, which means I'll need to rely on the few notes I have to get through this chapter. I'm hoping the deck lists alone will be enough for me to write a decent fight, but like Madoka said last chapter, Vanguard is 75% luck and I have to make it that way. So I expect fight #1 to take most of this chapter and next. Now to figure out how I'm going to draw it out for that long...

Time for some extremely peppy and totally happy music to get me into writing. I'M COUNTING ON YOU, ANIME OST FOLDER. Let's see how long this lasts before I get distracted by Happy Home Designer.

 **.**

When the big day rolled around, it didn't feel like such a big deal.

The fight was scheduled to take place after school in the gymnasium, where the Cardfight Club had their Motion Figure System set up. Out of consideration for their club's lack of experience - or so they say - it was decided that the fights would be closed off to other students. Other than those related to either club, it was completely off-limits.

Of course, that didn't stop people from staring when they arrived at school, during class, in the hallways. If anything, it was making them more nervous. And he was willing to bet they knew this, seeing as most of the students were supporting the Cardfight Club.

He was used to being jeered at. He was used to the glares and smirks.

His clubmates, however, were not.

Among their group, Madoka was probably the most nervous. He flinched every time someone looked his way, and shrunk away from any hateful sneer.

But the Literature Club wasn't without its own supporters.

"Oh god, what are _you_ doing here?"

Mamoru held up both hands in a defensive gesture, smiling. Yukio was with him, looking as amused as ever, though he seemed to be restraining himself.

"I count as someone 'related to the Literature Club' in case you haven't forgotten." He said, then frowned. "At least, that's what the email said." Kyou raised an eyebrow.

"What email?" He asked, and was immediately greeted with the sight of two sheets of paper explaining their involvement and passage into the school. Yukio shrugged.

"It's super creepy how that Hagane kid knew we gave you guys a bunch of cards and wanted to cheer for you, but I won't complain if I get to see you kick some bad-guy butt." He said, grinning.

Kyou didn't dare look at Nakuro's expression. He could already see the glittering eyes.

"Oh, so I'm not the only one!"

A loud voice interrupted them. Kyou was about to turn around and see who it was, but Madoka's expression stopped him.

"Someone you know?" He asked, marvelling at the annoyed expression on his friend's face. Madoka nodded stiffly.

"Unfortunately..."

He didn't have the chance to explain as an arm was thrown over his shoulder, grunting as he was pulled into a one-armed hug.

"It's been a while! How have you been?" Ohtaka greeted cheerfully, looking as if he had no intention of letting the shorter boy go. Madoka sighed.

"We saw each other the other day, don't act like I've been avoiding you." He said irritably, attemting to free himself.

"But you _have_ been avoiding me! Every time I say 'Hi' you run away." He was pouting now, something that looked odd on such a tall person. "I already promised I would stop trying to recruit you because you played during the festival, you don't have to be so worried."

Madoka glanced sideways, mumbling something along the lines of ' _That's not what I'm scared of_ ' before looking to Kyou for help. He wondered briefly why he wasn't asking Yoshiro, but a quick glance at the boy - who was doing a poor job of hiding his laughter - told him that wasn't happening anytime soon. Instead, he opted for the safe option.

"H-Hey, Ohtaka-san What did you mean by 'not the only one'?" He asked, effectively grabbing the older boy's attention long enough for Madoka to slip out. He immediately ran to Nakuro and Akio, hiding behind the two.

Ohtaka paid this no mind, instead digging through his uniform pocket and showing Kyou the same paper his brother and Yukio had.

"A few days ago, Yamato asked me to help him and Tegami train for your guy's fight. I guess Hagane found out about it." He said, scratching the back of his head and reading the paper again. " 'Because of your support, you are welcome to view the oncoming Vanguard fight between the Literature Club and the Cardfight Club'... he even put the date and time too. I found it stuffed in my desk this morning."

Yoshiro had stopped laughing, instead looking rather annoyed with every word.

"Hagane's playing with us." He said, earning confused looks all around. "He thinks inviting people that we're close to will put more pressure on us and cause mistakes."

He smirked then, a look shared among the members.

"What he doesn't get-" He started. "-is that we don't give a shit who's watching. That's _our_ room, dammit, and we're winning it back."

He was met with collective cheers from the others, and amused looks from their three guests.

"I just have one question." Nakuro said, raising a hand. When Yoshiro nodded, he pointed at Ohtaka. "Who's this."

There was a short silence as everyone just stared. Then, as if on cue, Akio started laughing, followed by Masuyo, then everyone else. Nakuro didn't even seem bothered by this.

"Come to think of it, I _didn't_ introduce myself to the underclassmen, did I?" Ohtaka said through his laughter. "Ohtaka Chisao, third year."

Kyou blinked. _Wait, that's-_

"That's a very contradictory name." Nakuro said, voicing his thoughts for him. Ohtaka laughed.

"Yeah, my parents thought it would make me grow up tall, and I guess it did!" He said, slapping the smaller boy on the back. Nakuro winced slightly, but managed to keep his face blank.

Yoshiro clapped his hands suddenly, gaining everyone's attention in one action. He looked around, his expression conveying to the four of them exactly what he wanted to say.

"Let's go."

 **.**

While is hasn't been that long since he's seen a Motion Figure System, Kyou couldn't help but whistle when he saw it.

"Good quality." He said, walking over to the device and inspecting it. It rose up the moment he stepped into the fighter's area, a cloud of dust coming up with it. "It's the lastest system too. Double performance speed and improved 3D features..."

"You have a good eye."

He turned around at the sound of someone behind him, findind himself face-to-face with a slightly-taller, pale-haired male.

"The school upgrades whenever a new model comes out. Our club is pretty active, so they make sure we have the latest in Vanguard technology."

Kyou nodded along, listening to the boy speak about the system and running and hand along the edge. He could feel the others watching him nervously, and he knew exactly why.

This person was the captain of the Cardfight Club.

"I suppose I should introduce myself." He said finally, after abot five minutes of explanation. He held out a hand. "Shirogane Kiritsu. Second year."

Kyou took his hand, giving it a quick shake before letting go. "Yahagi Kyou. Second."

"I know." He said. When Kyou raised an eyebrow, he shrugged. "Everyone in the club knows about you, from the moment you transferred in. The first years came running when they heard about you and asked if we were in the same class."

He said the last part with a laugh, but it didn't seem like he was trying to be friendly. Just professional.

"To be honest, I'm a little disappointed you didn't join the club. I thought for sure you would, but then I heard you were trying to quit Vanguard..." He glanced at Kyou's own club briefly before returning his attention to Kyou himself. "I can see that didn't work out well. Sorry about this."

At that, Kyou was rather surprised.

"You're sorry? I thought the Cardfight club _wanted_ our room." He said, trying not to sound too incredulous. The blond shrugged again.

"We didn't really. But we needed a new room, and Hagane insisted that yours was the only one available. A blatant lie, but I couldn't argue since everyone was for it. I really would have preffered talking this out, but... Murakawa screwed up, didn't he?" Kyou rolled his eyes.

"He just wouldn't shut up, and we were kinda panicking. It's really both our faults." He sighed, the other boy nodding. "But don't think we're not prepared. Madoka and I went through a lot of trouble to drill this club into decent shape, but we're going to give it our all."

He got a long stare from the other for a while, which worried him slightly before he started speaking.

"Not 'We're not going to lose to you guys'?" He said with a tiny smile. Kyou scoffed, but smirked back.

"That's a given." He said. It looked like the other boy was going to say more, before he was interrupted by someone from the other side of the room.

"Kiritsu-senpai, we're ready!" A girl shouted, waving him over. Kiritsu - Kyou decided to just stick with that - sighed, waving back before turning to Kyou with a slightly apologetic look.

"Gotta go, we're supposed to be 'enemies' and all right now." He said with a roll of his eyes. He held out his hand again, and Kyou gave him an odd look. "For sportsmanship... or something."

It was Kyou's turn to shrug, but he took the offer anyway.

"May the best team win, _Kyou-kun_." Kiritsu said, a mischevious glint in his eye.

Kyou decided not to think too much into it.

 **.**

"So what did you think?"

Kyou blinked when Yoshiro asked him this, stopping in his tracks.

"About?" He asked, not quite understanding what the boy was referring to. Yoshiro huffed.

"Kiritsu. He's not as bad as Murakawa made him seem, right?" He said with a small grin. Kyou thought back to the way the blond carried himself, how he spoke to Kyou with none of the overconfidence Murakawa had shown them a week ago.

"I guess. He seems pretty cool." He said finally. "Why, you know him?"

Yoshiro looked away from him, over his shoulder to the other side of the room. He nodded.

"He's in my class, we sit right next to each other. He's really considerate, though he can be a huge ditz... all the time. When it doesn't involve Vanguard, I mean." He quickly corrected the last part, waving a hand. "He's a monster when it comes to the game, but his club members don't listen to him."

"Oh?" This was interested. The way he reacted to being called by his clubmates also raised a few questions.

"Hagane has all but sapped his power over the club by putting up so many regulations, but giving them a huge budget and favoring them over the other clubs. Our Cardfight club used to be really respectable, which the is whole reason he joined..." He paused here, frowning. "But Hagane got into the student council during our first year and fucked things up. The old members all quit once the new members were given priority for 'training reasons' and Kiritsu was made captain since he was the only competant first year at the time."

Kyou let this load of information process for a moment, then something in the back of his mind clicked.

"So you're saying..." Yoshiro smirked.

"He's got just as much reason to stab Hagane in the back as we do. I doubt he'll throw any matches, but he's also got nothing to lose if we win." At Kyou's confused look, he explained. "Think of it this way; if the Cardfight Club wins, Hagane gets more power over them and we get screwed out of our club. If _we_ win, not only does Hagane's plan fall apart, but his authority will be put into question and Kiritsu will have a chance to take back his club."

A genius plan, if only it weren't for a very important factor.

"This game is 75% luck, and Hagane most likely demanded they use their best players. How can he be so sure we'll win?" He asked. Yoshiro hummed.

"You thought Madoka was the only one helping me with my deck? You guys aren't the only ones with reliable sources. And no, I don't feem ashamed for asking the 'enemy' for help because _he_ offered."

Kyou rolled his eyes at the poor excuse, but settled with it. If Kiritsu was as good as Yoshiro made him out to be, then his help would be a huge bonus to them. And it was a good feeling to have a friend on the other side.

Something occured to him at that moment, from what Yoshiro said before.

"You said Hagane's authority would be called into question if they lost this... he's only on the student council, he shouldn't be directing the Cardfight Club."

Yoshiro blinked, then sighed.

"I'm surprised you, of all people, haven't caught on yet." He stepped around Kyou and pointed to the other side. There stood a familiar figure, one that was glaring directly at them.

"Hagane _is_ in the Cardfight Club. And chances are, he'll be taking part in this fight too."

 **.**

"Both clubs, line up!"

Kyou jumped when the command was suddenly shouted, quickly standing up and following the others to the middle of the gym. From the looks of things, only a few members of the Cardfight Club were present in the audience, most likely managers. On their side, their four supporters were watching calmly, thought Masuyo looked very annoyed at having to sit in in the audience.

They still hadn't heard what happened with her club status. They'd need to work that out.

But first, to deal with the problem in front of them.

Both clubs lined up in the middle of the room, by member status. Other than Kiritsu, Murakawa, and Hagane, there were two other members Kyou didn't recognize. One was a rather sketchy looking, short boy with a smug look on his face. The other wasn't even looking in their direction, looking around the room and adjusting his glasses every once in a while.

"We will be starting the fight between the Cardfight Club and Literature Club. Five fights, best of three wins." The ref, a teacher, said. "The first fight will be Hanoi Akio versus Fujioka Manabu. All other participants, please return to the bench."

Kyou waited until most of the other members turned away, quickly giving Akio a short pat on the shoulder, earning a surprised look from the boy.

"Do your best." He said. "Strong start, okay?"

Akio nodded, following the teacher's directions to the fighter's area. He jumped when the Motion Figure System activated, but managed to keep his cool and pulled on the gloves provided for him - a bright red color, matching his fading hair.

Once everything was in place on the field, the teacher gave the command to start.

"Stand up, Vanguard!"

 **.**

A/N: In case you guys are wondering, I write characters in narration depending on what they're called the most by other characters, otherwise it would get confusing if I just referred to every new character Kyou meets by their last name. That's why despite referring to Chisao as "Ohtaka" when he appears, Kiritsu is always going to be called by his first name unless someone does otherwise. And it took me a good while to think of a nice name for him, so I'd like to use it while I can. This is also why I refrained from using his name before anyone besides Kyou started talking to him.

I personally like Kiritsu, both his design(which you guys probably won't see for a long time, because I can't draw people well) and his personality. You'll find out why.

But on to Akio. I ended up cutting the actual fight because the chapter was getting a little too long and I prefer to keep them at a reasonable length. So instead of taking a whole chapter and a half, his fight will probably take all of next chapter. And depending on how detailed I want the fight to be, it might still end up taking half of the next too.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: To give an estimate of how long it's been since I started this chapter... I started writing when Tales of Zestiria came out. I beat the game the same week. Then I started working to fulfill my graduation requirements. So yeah, there you go.

Being completely honest - the only reason this chapter got done as well as it did is because I got this sudden flash of inspiration after work, realized I didn't have to put so much effort into writing the actual plays, and figured "If Bushi can gloss over fights in favor of characters sorting out their shit, why can't I?"

 **.**

"Battle Sister, Eclair!"

Akio watched in amazement as the unit appeared behind him, inside the field that rippled and wavered. When everything settled, they were in the middle of what looked like a shrine. He turned back when he heard his opponent's unit materialize.

He didn't even try hiding the look on his face.

"Megacolony Battler C."

He watched in mild horror as the bug-like monster appeared in a flash of light. Its small size did nothing to ease his discomfort once he realized just _what_ is was, feeling his face grow pale.

 **.**

"Akio doesn't like bugs." Nakuro said as they watched the boy cower at the sight of the giant roach. Kyou reached up, pinching the bridge of his nose and sighed heavily.

"We should have thought this through a little more. Maybe gathered some information on our opponents."

Yoshiro coughed uncomfortably, and Kyou gave him a disbelieving look.

"If you knew you should have said something!"

 **.**

He ignored his opponent's confused look as he refused to face forward, intent on fighting backwards.

"I can totally do it, if you don't mind." He said once the other boy questioned him.

"I kind of do." Was the response. He didn't know Fujioka well, despite them being in the same grade, but he always heard about how he was rather no-nonsense... among other things.

"So it really is true that you love bugs..." He groaned, slowly turning around and flinching when the giant bug smirked. "Seriously, why would they make a clan like that!"

He flinched again, this time at the glare Fujioka gave him.

"I'll have you know I find this clan perfectly suitable." He said, to which Akio snorted.

"Yeah, you would."

The other boy cleared his throat, and Akio quickly shut his mouth.

"Since you insist on not starting for us, I'll go first." He said, grabbing the top card of his deck and checking it. He then placed it in his hand, grabbing another card and throwing it onto the table.

"Ride, Phantom Black!"

There was another flash of light, and Battler C disappeared. In its place - much to Akio's horror - came a giant black ant, orange eyes flashing. A shiver ran down the brunette's spine when the roach reappeared behind it.

"That's _so_ creepy!" He cried out. He saw Fujioka's eye twitch.

"Oh get _over_ it already!" He said irritably, slamming another card onto the table. "Call, Machining Mosquito! Soul charge one!"

"Another bug!"

"Quiet!"

 **.**

"You're sure this isn't just a strategy to throw the opponent off his game?"

"... If it is, he's a very good actor."

 **.**

"I can't tell if you're just _pretending_ to be afraid just to annoy me, or legitimately afraid of bugs."

Akio lowered his arms, which had come up to shield his face, meeting Fujioka's no-nonsense glare. He sighed.

"Alright, I may have been playing it up a little for entertainment's sake, but I'm _really_ not good with bugs." He said, wrinkling his nose at the sight of the units. "Bad memories, trauma, Sister-dropped-a-spider-in-my-cereal, whatever you wanna call it. My turn?"

Fujioka rolled his eyes, waving a hand. Akio nodded, looking down at his hand.

 _Ginger, Miracle Kid, Cocoa, Mocha and Chocolat. Not the best, but at least I'm not grade-locked..._

He quickly reached for his deck, swiping the first card and adding it to his hand.

 _Battle Sister Lemonade._

"Ride, Battle Sister Cocoa!" He called out, placing the card in the Vanguard circle. "Eclair moves, Cocoa's skill. I look at the top card of my deck and put it back on top or bottom."

He did such, drawing the card and reading the name carefully, filing through the information Kyou made sure to carve into his mind.

" _If it's a grade 3 and you need, keep it. If it's a trigger, keep it. If it's anything else and you're not in a desperate situation where you can use it, bottom._ "

He scanned the card quickly, re-reading the name before placing it back on top of the deck.

 _I hope this is what he meant..._

"Eclair boosts, Cocoa attacks you Vanguard!"

"No guard." Fujioka said, placing two fingers on his deck in preparation for his damage check. Akio nodded, taking the top card of his deck and flipping it over.

"Trigger check. Battle Sister Tiramisu, draw trigger." He said, putting the card in his hand and drawing another. He fought back a sigh or relief when he saw what it was.

 _Battle Sister Fromage. Good_.

"Damage check." Fujioka turned the top card of his deck over, revealing it to his opponent. "Paralyze Madonna."

He placed the perfect guard in the damage zone, not taking his eyes off Akio. The brunette swallowed, unnerved.

"Turn end." He said hesitantly, wondering if there was anything else he could have done. He glanced at the others, noting the nod he got from Kyou, and turned back to the fight.

 **.**

"Strange, you don't look too happy. Isn't Fujioka your favorite?"

Kiritsu frowned, only slightly, not looking at Hagane as he spoke.

"He is. Which is why I'm really fucking pissed."

"Oh?"

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He didn't need to deal with this right now.

 **.**

"Stand, draw." Fujioka glanced at his deck, picking up the first card with care and placing it in his hand.

 _Everything's ready_. He thought. _The first damage couldn't be avoided, and it's unlucky that I dropped a perfect guard, but I can make up for it_.

Another glance at his deck, and he rode his next unit.

"Ride, Tail Joe." He said, and twitched at Akio's horrified expression as the giant centipede rose out of the ground. "Why am I putting up with this... Stealth Millipede moves, call Bloody Hercules."

He moved the card to the back row before laying down the next, watching as they both appeared in their places.

... _Kiritsu-senpai isn't happy._ He thought, glancing at his captain. Their eyes met for a brief second before the blond turned away, frowning. _I wonder if he'll take back our deal?_

He shook his head, looking back at his deck.

 _This is the only way_.

"Mosquito boosts, and Bloody Hercules attacks."

The counter appeared above the beetle, and it sprang into action, slamming its weapon into Cocoa. Akio brought an arm up to shield himself from the shock wave.

"Uh, damage check!" He said, grabbing the top card of his deck. "Battle Sister Macaron."

He quickly placed the card in his damage zone, looking back in time to see Fujioka turning his Vanguard to the side.

"C boosts, Tail Joe attacks your Vanguard." He placed a hand on his deck, waiting for Akio to declare is action. When the brunette shook his head, he glanced at his deck before flipping it over.

"Shelter Beetle. Critical trigger."

Another strike to Cocoa, and Akio winced as he checked his next two cards.

"Battle Sister Assam, stand trigger." He said, placing the card down. "I stand Eclair. Second check. Battle Sister Cocotte."

Another card joined the damage zone, and Fujioka bit back a smile.

 **.**

Nakuro blinked, watching the boy's hands as he checked each card, every movement near his deck.

"Nakuro." Kyou said, shaking him slightly. "Something wrong?"

He blinked again, then looked up at his senior.

"Senpai, you know that path I take to get home? The one in paint?" Kyou raised an eyebrow, but nodded.

"The really bright neon one?" Nakuro nodded.

"Yeah. The only reason the neighborhood association allowed it was because, under normal circumstances, that paint can't be seen. It's a type of luminous paint that, under normal lighting, doesn't show up. It's also mixed with a type of chemical that hides it at night, so it doesn't distract drivers on moonless nights, so it's not normally visible to humans. You must have really special eyes if you can see them."

Kyou said nothing to this, but Nakuro didn't expect him to, turning back to the fight. Akio had just ridden his next unit and called more.

"Akio can see them too, but I guess he's too far away to notice." He continued, earning a confused look.

"What do you mean?" He asked, and Nakuro pointed at Akio's opponent.

"I'm guessing the lens of his glasses are darkened or have some kind of lighting on the inside that makes it visible. You should be able to see it through your phone's camera though, if you change the light settings."

Kyou stared at him for a moment before hurriedly pulling out his phone, opening the camera and zooming in on Fujioka, altering the lighting so that it darkened. He looked over the image he was getting for a split second before his eyes widened, confusion replaced with anger.

"That little son of a bitch..."

 **.**

Akio scratched the back of his head, looking over his field and the cards in his hand and weighing his options.

 _No good, I really don't know what to do._ He thought, looking up at his Vanguard. Mocha stoof in his center, Mocha to her left and Miracle Kid to his own.

 _I've got Ginger, Chocolat, and Lemonade in my hand. Will that be enough to last the next turn?_

He brought his hand down. _No time to think about it_.

"Kid boosts, Tarte attacks your Vanguard!" He called, turning both cards.

"No guard." Fujioka responded, not batting an eye as the attack struck his Vanguard. "Damage check - Toxic Trooper."

Akio clicked his tongue, looking back at the text of his center unit. _If I knew he wasn't gonna guard I wouldn't have called Kid. I could have used that power boost..._

He reached for the card, his fingertips barely brushing the surface before moment in the corner of his eye stopped him.

 _Nakuro? What's he doing?_ He glanced at his friend's left, where Kyou was pointing to the smaller male. Nakuro was moving his hands in a familiar fashion. _Sign language? I haven't done this in a while. Uh..._

Grateful that his friend was moving slowly with every letter, he quietly mumbled the words to himself.

 _H-E-S- Uh, He's..._

His mind blanked for a second, even as it processed the next word, his eyes widening slightly.

 _He's cheating._

 **.**

A/N: I wouldn't quote me on any of that stuff about the paint, since only 90% of it I can say is accurate. It's all from research I pulled off Wiki.

I said I wouldn't be focusing too much on the fights themselves, but I still had to do a lot of thinking and strategizing to manipulate it in a certain direction, which is really fucking hard. Especially when you forget what you're setting up for and how to get there while writing for two fighters. Needless to say, most of the time it took to write this was researching skills and reading through tips on certain units. I also had to rewrite a few decks in order to do this, which I might have to do often from now on. In the middle of the fights. There's also keeping track of hand, what units are ridden/called, how many of each card is left in the deck... I'd like to test these decks against each other and just base the fights off that(while altering them slightly so certain units appear and certain fights are won/lost), but I don't have a way to do so, since it's not like the games are localized and despite what people may believe, I don't _actually_ have all these cards. So I'm doing it all on paper.

I might be putting too much effort into this, but I want to write a quality fic.

Also note: I may or may not have changed Fujioka's first name last chapter for future purposes. Because things happened and writing the name "Manami" often in a non-YP fic would get _very_ awkward, _very_ fast. It's not a gigantic change though.

I suggest checking out the "Tomorrow" spin-off I uploaded, "Yesterday's Exchange", because I'm changing a few more things in an attempt to transition the series into "no honorifics". They're really small changes, but since it also has some "bonus content" if you wanna call it that. Kinda.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: So I've learned that the back of the wrist is a very uncomfortable spot to burn yourself. But at least it's not my fingers this time, right?!

I feel like being able to settle this fight in two chapters is kinda cheap, but fights don't actually move as slow as they do in the show, folks. I would know, the guys at the shop play faster than I can think :/ Though I can't talk, since I can play just as well, I think.

My decks are just incomplete, that's all! That's totally why my win-loss record is so slanted!

But enough excuses as to why I don't have many wins to my name(all seven of them) - here's where the obligatory "let me tell you my life story" portion of the fight kicks in. Akio is gonna be sick of trying to relate to people after this, I swear. When did he become an All Loving Hero?

 **.**

 _He's cheating_.

The words whirled around in his head a few times before they made sense, and he quickly snapped back to reality when he noticed Nakuro's hands were still moving.

 _His. Deck. Look. At. His. Deck._

He slowly turned back to his opponent, who was starting to look very annoyed at how he's drawn out his turn, but he was more focused on something he didn't notice before.

How had he missed the fluorescent colors coming out in thin streams?

He looked up at Fujioka, too shocked to really say anything, mind still going through all the posible explanations for this.

He didn't think his opponent would actually cheat. It was a little hard to come to terms with.

 _This must be some kind of culture shock._ He thought, biting his tongue. _He's cheating. He's actually fucking cheating. I didn't think stuff like this happened in real life._

He was brought back from his daze by an incessant tapping, courtesy of Fujioka's left foot.

"Are you done staring?" He asked, annoyed. Akio took a shaky breath, opening his mouth to speak.

"... Did you know that there's a type of luminous paint that can only be seen under UV lighting?" He asked quietly, but loud enough for Fujioka to hear. The boy looked surprised at that, but closed his eyes, sighing.

"So you noticed." He said calmly, pushing his glasses up. "You have very good eyes. Without these it looks perfectly normal to me, although the colors do disappear for a few seconds."

"I know." Akio said, smiling crookedly. "I've hung around Nakkun's house enough to be able to see them, you wouldn't believe how the body can absorb chemical fumes and what they can do to you."

Fujioka nodded, crossing his arms and staring at his deck.

"And?" He pressed. "Are you going to rat me out, or do you think you can still win with a handicap? Though, since we can both see the colors, I don't think it's much of one."

"Yeah. If anything, I've got just as much an advantage." _Though it's kinda hard to see from here. Looks like he's got a... if he's labeled them the way I think he has, he's gonna guard next to keep that grade 3_. "Eclair boosts, Mocha attacks you Vanguard."

Fujioka's eyes widened for a split second before he threw out Shelter Beetle.

"Drive check!" Akio shouted, flipping over the first card. "Miracle Kid. Power goes to Mocha, and I draw one card."

He picked up the card without thinking, looking at it once it reached his hand, and his eyes widened.

 _Monaka_.

He heard Fujioka click his tongue, and watched as he flipped over the top card.

"Bewitching Officer, Lady Butterfly." And it went into the damage zone.

Akio let out a breath, and smiled widely.

"See? Even if I'd said anything, neither of us knows what's in _my_ deck, so either way we're pretty evenly matched!" He said happily, waving his arms around. Fujioka shook his head.

"That changes nothing. I still have to win this." He said, drawing his next card. He smiled. "And it's not like that last attack made any difference. I may be down a hand, but I have everything set up now."

At Akio's confused look, he threw the card down.

"Ride! Death Warden, Ant Lion!"

 **.**

Kiritsu turned away from the fight, taking two steps before his arm was caught.

"Where do you think you're going?" Hagane asked coldly, glaring at him. The blond sighed.

"Out. There's nothing left for me to see here, seeing as your 'strategy' seems to have eithe fallen apart or given us a cheap win." Hagane looked at him oddly, and he suppressed a smirk. "You think seeing the cards makes a difference in this game? It just tells you if they're in a good position or not - either way, it's all up to luck."

Hagane shrugged. "Either way, you have to stay to the end, _captain_."

How he wished looks could kill.

 **.**

"Call, Machining Armor Beetle."

He ignored Akio's shout of "How many more bugs?!", looking down at his field, pushing Mosquito into the soul for his new addition's skill.

 _My hand is empty, but I can fix that in a few turns..._

He looked to his left, where his teammates stood. Kiritsu and Hagane seemed to be arguing now, and Kiritsu kept gesturing tp him wildly. _He's_ really _mad_.

"Hey!" His head shot up, and he turned to Akio, who was giving him a confused look. "Why are you cheating anyway? Does the Cardfight Club really need our room that badly?"

Fujioka snorted. "Of course not. It was all Hagane-san's idea. I mean, Kiritsu-senpai protested, but..." He paused. "No one listens to him."

Before Akio could say anything, he pointed to Tarte. "Because of Beetle's skill, Tarte cannot stand next turn."

The unit was quickly entrapped in a yellow web, held in place and visibly straining against the bindings.

"But that doesn't mean you have to go along with it!" Akio said, looking worriedly at his unit. "Honestly, who do you respect more? Hagane or Shirogane-senpai?"

He bit the inside of his cheek, refraining from answering. Instead, he looked back at his field, counting the cards under his Vanguard.

 _Ant Lion has... five soul. If I can last another two turns, I should be able to activate his mega blast._

"It doesn't matter who I l-respect more! Orders are orders!" He said, quickly correcting his near-slip. "Hercules attacks Tarte!"

Akio jumped as the large beetle came charging at him, grabbing a card from his hand. "Guard, Battle Sister Ginger!"

The unit appeared in a green ring, stopping the enemy's advance and sending it sprawling. He breathed a sigh of relief. "You can't _seriously_ believe that, right? I mean, I've disobeyed Yoshi-san plenty of times. I've got the bruises to prove it!"

He tried to block out the indignant "Don't _tell_ people that!" from the sidelines, focusing on the next attack.

"Ant Lion attacks, boosted by C!" Fujioka called out, readying himself for the next check. Akio looked at his hand and bit his lip.

"No guard." He said, averting his eyes as the large bug stood over him.

"Trigger check. Medical Battler Ranpli." He placed the heal trigger in his hand, taking a card from his damage zone and placing it on the other side of the mat. "Second check - Raider Mantis. I draw one card."

He did so with no extra movement, not flinching at the wind kicked up from the attack.

"C's skill - counterblast one, and he goes into the soul. Eclair cannot stand next turn."

Another web, and Eclair was pinned to the ground. Akio winced.

"Damage check." He swallowed, former nervousness returning as he neared four damage. He held his breath-"... Battle Sister Chai!" -and released it at the sight of the green marking, placing it in the damage zone and removing one.

Fujioka frowned. _I shouldn't have froze his units. I'm nowhere near enough damage to pay for Lion's skill..._

He paused in his thought when Akio huffed, a hand on his hip.

"You know, you're really good, even without the cheating. Why even bother?"

He closed his eyes, sighing deeply. Upon opening them, his frown deepened when he saw Akio still giving him that same look.

"Does it matter? I mean, it's not like anything will change from me telling you." He said, waving a hand. Akio shrugged.

"No, go on. I seriously want to know what compelled you to cheat. Even if it's not working."

He realized how glad he was that the fighter's area was a good distance away from the spectators, and therefor no one could hear them. Otherwise, they'd be getting a lot of complaints.

"... Turn end." He said, hoping the prompt would make Akio give up on pressing for answers. He drew one card and stood what units he could, but made no move to ride. He made no move to do anything, actually. Fujioka raised an eyebrow. "You're not serious."

"Yep. Totally am. This fight isn't going _anywhere_ until you tell me what's up." He huffed again, crossing his arms and looking away defiantly. He cracked a smile at his friend's confused faces. Fujioka sighed.

"They- _Hagane_ told me to. That's it. I just have to win this fight, and everything will work out." He said, belatedly realizing what the last part of that sentence implied. "Th-that's _really_ it! All I have to do is win and-"

Briefly, his mind flashed back to his senior's disappointed face. A cold dread washed over him as he glanced to where the boy stood, pointedly not watching the fight.

"... Our captain can be rather childish." He said, completely out of context by the look on Akio's face. "That's why I have to do this. If we can win here, the club's reputation might be salvaged just enough to motivate him."

He sighed, glaring at the brunet.

"Now hurry up and ride, unless you plan on continuing this fight with a grade 2 Vanguard."

Akio jerked, blinking rapidly and looking at his field. "Oh, uh, right!"

"Ride, Battle Sister Monaka!" He said, with none of the flourish or intensity his other three club members had - he found it weird, really, how they said all that stuff before riding their grade 3. "Call Fromage, Candy! Candy's skill, I counterblast one and place one card into my damage zone."

Taking the top card of his deck, he revealed it to be Vanilla before placing it in the damage zone. He knew it didn't make a difference right now, this skill - the requirements for Monaka's skill weren't fulfilled, but he had other plans for-

Wait.

... Huh?

"... No backsies, huh?" He asked, realizing the mistake he made. Fujioka smirked at him.

"This match is being played with official rules, so no, no backsies."

Out of the corner of his eye, Akio said Kyou burying his face in his hands. Oops.

 **.**

"That _idiot_."

He felt a hand on his shoulder, and saw Madoka wearing a similarly pained look. he turned to Yoshiro.

"Don't make that mistake. It's a little harder with your deck, but _don't make that mistake_." He said seriously. Yoshiro winced.

"Got it."

 **.**

"Well, I think I'm effectively _dead_ once this fight is over, so let's just go with it!" He said with a fake enthusiasm. Despite this, he scanned his field carefully, before his eyes landed on Eclair. "Well, since she can't do anything anyway - counterblast one, Eclair goes into the soul."

He slid the card out of its place and under Monaka, flipping over one card with his other hand.

"I look at the top five cards of my deck and pick one grade 3 or higher to put in my hand. The rest go back and I shuffle the deck." _Maybe this can make up for my mistake_.

He placed his hand down, slowly picking up five cards and looking them over. His eyes widened.

 _Someone up there must really like me_. He thought, picking out one card.

"Battle Sister Monaka."

The rest went back into his deck, and he carefully shuffled it a few times before putting it back down. He took a deep breath.

"Okay." He turned the first card. "Monaka's skill - counterblast one, persona bast." The Monaka in his hand fell into the drop zone. "I look at the top five cards of my deck and take two, and the rest go to the bottom in any order I want."

He repeated his earlier action, taking five cards and looking over them carefully.

"I take... Tarte and Caramel." He said, revealing the two cards and placing them in his hand. He switched the positions of the other three before sliding them under his deck. "I retire the Tarte on my field and replace her with the one from my hand."

He quickly swiped the frozen unit and replaced it with the same one, briefly wondering if he could have just stood it and dropped the one that was in his hand, but he didn't mention this.

"Now, Fromage attacks with a boost from Candy!"

"No guard." Fujioka said, letting the attack pass him. "Damage - Butterfly."

Akio nodded, reaching for his Vanguard. "Monaka attacks your Vanguard. Twin drive." He reached for his deck when he saw that His opponent had no intention of guarding. "First check - Battle Sister Ginger. Power goes to Tarte, critical to Monaka." He saw Fujioka wince slightly. "Second check - Battle Sister Fromage."

Fujioka clicked his tongue, grabbing both cards at once and flipping them over.

"Damage check - first is Phantom Black. Second is Ranpli. I heal one damage, and the power goes to Lion."

Akio swallowed, glancing at his opponent's damage zone before looking at his own. _Six turns and we're only at three damage. Is that good or bad?_

Deciding it was best to ignore it for now - he knew he should start guarding more by four damage, at least - he returned to the fight.

"Kid boosts, Tarte attacks your Vanguard."

 **.**

"He's doing better."

Kyou frowned, hearing the comment but not responding. While he didn't like the mistakes Akio made, it was true that he managed to bounce back, but something still didn't sit well with him.

 _Maybe because it's so... anticlimactic?_ He wondered, thinking back to the fights he had in the past. During every match he could recall himself of his opponent pulling off some extraordinary move, activating a skill that turned the game around, even managing to get their ace on the field. While they both certainly had their main cards out, the way things looked, only Akio was able to use his Vanguard's main skill, although he chose not to go through with the second one.

 _He made the right choice then, since Fujioka didn't guard, but..._ He looked up at the projection, which showed each player's field. _At this rate they're just going back and forth. If one of them loses, it'll be due to not having any guards, not because they were particularly skilled. Although..._

Looking back at Akio, Kyou held in a sigh.

 _Maybe it's best that it turns out that way_.

 **.**

"Damage check - Raider Mantis. I draw one card."

Fujioka placed the trigger down, wasting no time in drawing the card. He saw Akio let out a breath, choosing a card from his damage zone to finalize Candy's skill and returning it to his deck before ending his turn, allowing him to finally draw.

 _Machining Mosquito and Brillian Blister. Good_.

Placing them in his hand, he surveyed his field before making his move.

"First off, Lion's skill. Soul charge one, and he gains two thousand power."

He flipped over the top card, frowning at the sight of a critical trigger.

"Call Machining Mosquito. Skill activates, soul charge one." _That's seven. Just one more... and one damage_. "Call one more Mosquito. Soul charge."

Another went in, and he didn't even blink when he saw it was another Lion.

 _Eight_.

Everything was ready. He just needed to survive the next turn-

 _..._

Survive?

 _When did it come to that?_ He thought to himself. He wondered when it went from "guarding the next attack" to wondering if he would be able to guard it at all.

 _That's not right. I've got a guard of twenty-five thousand with Brillian Blister, enough to at least guard against his two rearguards._

A thought occurred to him, and he glanced at Akio.

 _... If he doesn't pull a trigger._

"Heeeey, what's taking so long?" Akio's voice snapped him out of his thoughts, and he shook his head. _It's alright. As long as I get one trigger in my drive check, I'll be okay_.

"I just thought of something." Akio said suddenly, hand on his hip and brows furrowed. "I don't know if I'm right, but... you don't seem to like Hagane that much."

Fujioka blinked.

"And... how did you come to that conclusion?" He asked, momentarily forgetting about the match. Akio hummed.

"Well, when I asked who you respected more, you didn't really answer. You said "orders are orders" and all, but doesn't that mean you don't actually want to do this?"

 _"You don't actually want to do this, do you?"_

He flinched visibly when the words rang in his head, a different voice speaking them this time.

 _"You say you joined because you respected me, but... I can't believe that when you won't even listen to reason_. _"_

 _This is reason. I'm doing this for the club_.

He shook his head in an attempt to rid himself of the thoughts. He sighed.

"Like I said, it doesn't matter who I like more. I'm doing this because I was told to-"

"Yeah, that's why it's weird." Akio interrupted, startling him. "Your captain wasn't the one that ordered it - Hagane did. So why do you have to listen to him?

 _Why?_

 _I thought it was obvious_.

"It's... the only way." He said softly, enough that Akio had to strain his ears to hear it. "As if I can win otherwise. I only started Vanguard a year ago, you know? I'm not even that good."

Akio looked completely unconvinced. In fact, he looked downright _annoyed_.

"Are you _kidding me_? You say you're not that good, but so far, you've been kicking my ass! I've just gotten lucky!"

"That's also part of the game." He said dismissively. "At least you had people to teach you. I got into the game because..."

He trailed off, the image of shoulder-length platinum-blonde hair and a smile flashing through his mind.

 _"Vanguard? It's a game I really love."_

 _"You like bugs, right? Why not try playing Megacolony?"_

He pushed the memory from his mind, instead looking down at his field.

"... Mosquito boosts, Beetle attacks your Vanguard." Akio looked surprised at the change in pace, hurriedly shouting "no guard" and closing his eyes as the attack hit.

"D-Damage check." He said, flipping over the top card. "Miracle Kid - Draw."

Once he had his new card, Fujioka wasted no time in declaring his next attack.

"My second Mosquito boosts, Lion attacks your Vanguard."

He watched the counter rise up to nineteen thousand before looking to Akio, who looked about ready to panic.

 _Of course. He only has three cards in his hand, one of which is a draw trigger. If I manage to get a trigger, it's over._

He looked down at his deck, tapping the top card impatiently.

"Um, perfect guard!" Akio finally announced, shocking him out of his daze. Chocolat materialized on the field, a familiar green barrier blocking his Vanguard. He clicked his tongue as Akio dropped a card into his drop zone.

"Drive check. First - Raider Mantis. Draw, and power to Hercules. Second - Paralyze Madonna."

Placing the perfect guard in his hand, he looked at the card he drew, vaguely wondering if it was a good sign.

"... Heracles attacks your Vanguard." He said, deciding not to go after the rearguards. _He only has Tarte that he can use to guard, and anything in his hand is most likely a five thousand guard at best._

Which is why he wasn't surprised when Maple appeared in the guard circle, taking the final hit. Akio let out a long breath.

"Alright, now that it's my turn and I therefor have all the right to stall under the pretense that I'm _thinking_ \- can we continue that conversation?"

"No." Fujioka said flatly, wondering how someone could cling to one subject for so long. "If you're going to tell me "Nothing justifies cheating" then I definitely don't want to finish it."

"Oh come on!" Akio cried. He pinched the bridge of his nose, then waved a hand. "Alright, I won't _say_ it. But I still wanna know why."

 _Why._

 **.**

A/N: For those that didn't catch Akio's mistake - he realized that he could have ridden Fromage instead of Monaka and called Candy to not only fulfill the "four Battle Sister RGs" condition, but also get Limit Break, which would have let him draw two cards. The reason I didn't change this when it happened - I didn't notice either until Candy's skill was activated. But stuff like this legitimately happens, and it's Akio. Not only is he a total newbie, but he's not the best thinker. As you saw above, his plan was to return Chai to the deck so he would have another heal trigger. At least he had a strategy. To be honest, this is what I used to do before I started actively using Limit Breaks.

So it looks like I'm not finishing this fight in two chapters like I thought I would, because it ended up being longer than I thought it would and by that point I was getting tired of one continuous document. And I ended up staring at the screen for a while before I realized I had no way to transition at the end.

Last but not least... the thing about writing these fights, it's a bad idea to leave off halfway through and not continue right away, because you forget what's going on and have to look over your notes again before you remember. Imagine how a month long gap between writing this affected the fight. Especially when my internet died in the middle and I couldn't look up cards(I have them all saved on the computer now to prevent this).


	12. Bonus Chapter 1

A/N: What's worse than waiting over a year for a new chapter? Getting a new one, and finding out it's a bonus.

I swear I had a serious explanation for this, but I already put it in the note for the next chapter, and I really don't feel like looking for it...

But on to what this is all about - basically, writing the fights has really been stressing me out(a year long gap in the middle of a fight does not do good for your memory) to the point that I almost re-wrote the ENTIRE SECTION. But I decided I liked how things went, even if it was a mess, and it sounded like a lot of work. So these are sort of like, break chapters. I don't know how long they'll go on or if I'm going to move them to their own bonus fic eventually(probably, most likely) but I feel like I needed to do SOMETHING. Because I refuse to let this series die, no matter what other people are telling me!

... I may have discussed this with the wrong people.

You'll probably figure out a theme in the titles soon enough.

 **.**

 **The "Getting Back Into The Swing Of Things" Chapter**

 **.**

 _Lieutenant Milos gazed out the window of the ship's control room, the sight of millions of blinking lights meeting his eyes. If they had been stars it would have been a beautiful sight, one he would have engraved into his memory for eternity, as a reminder that even beauty can be seen in war._

 _But they weren't stars._

 _He sighed, turning his head away from the sight of the thousands of enemy battle ships approaching and towards his crew mates. The air was thick with apprehension and fear - morale was low enough as it was, and the realization that they were horribly outnumbered didn't help one bit._

 _'It can't be helped.' Milos though, closing his eyes and tilting his cap downwards. 'I just can't compare to that guy."_

 _The memories came flooding in immediately, no matter how hard he tried to push them back. It was all too sudden, and the loss of Captain Michael hit them hard-_

"But the good Captain's doing pretty well in last week's issue, isn't he?"

"Shit-"

Kyou jumped away from the voice, tumbling off his chair and into the bedframe. Mamoru ignored his obvious pain, instead continuing to read the document on the screen. He hummed in thought.

"Don't you think this is a little rushed? I mean, I remember it happening on the side in the main story, but isn't there a little time between where last issue was set and this one?" He said, picking up the binder next to the mouse and flipping through it. Kyou - now done writhing in pain and effectively _pissed_ \- stood and snatched it out of his hand, sitting back down.

"I'm supposed to be writing Milos's side of the battle, where he takes on the enemy fleet and comes out victorious before being assassinated shortly after." He said, pointing the the highlighted area and running his finger down the page. "Michael's death happened in the main story, which was the battle set right after last week's issue."

"Even though it was so light-hearted..." Mamoru said regrettably, remembering the fun party-themed chapter that had been written by Yoshiro, surprisingly.

"I mean, they're not ALL supposed to be happy. They're excerpts, meaning even things like Milos's battle and Janka's reasons for defecting to the enemy side have to be shown eventually. Ahh, I wonder if there's another phrase for this part here-"

Mamoru stared at him while he dug around for a dictionary, tilting his head.

"You've gotten pretty used to writing." He said, and Kyou looked up with a confused look before tossing the thick book onto his desk.

"Well, yeah. Helps that Yoshiro and Madoka are around, and they've got a lot of experience with it. Especially Yoshiro, you should see the stuff he wrote back in elementary school-"

"Is it fun?" His brother asked, startling his slightly. At the pause, he added: "Writing. Is it fun?"

Kyou shrugged, turning back to his computer and flipping open the dictionary, inwardly wishing real life had some kind of search function like his browser did. "Kinda. It's not bad, but sometimes it gets a little stressful. Especially since we have deadlines, so we can't really take our time."

He paused, thinking back to the meeting they discussed this project at, how excited they all were when they decided to use their spare ideas. And how-

"It's... a lot harder than it sounded, actually." He said after a moment. "The student council is breathing down our necks, just waiting for us to mess up, and there are a bunch of people that will ask stupid questions or make ridiculous requests that just won't fit in the story."

"So what do you do?"

"We say no." He said. "Well, it depends on who's being asked, but generally the answer is 'no'. Unless you're Masuyo, then you get different versions of the word..."

He trailed off there, noticing how Mamoru was still staring at him. Starting to feel annoyed, he glared at the older male. "What."

Mamoru blinked. "Oh, nothing. It's just, compared to when you came back from that Fun Fritters-"

"Foo Fighters." Kyou corrected blandly. Mamoru waved him off.

"-place, you're a lot more... chipper?"

"Did you really just say "chipper"?"

"Shut it, I'm trying to be serious." The pout on his face effectively ruined this though, causing his little brother to burst out laughing at the expression. "See that's the Kyou I remember, the one that would laugh in my face whenever something went wrong. Only now you sound legitimately happy- wait."

He stopped, suddenly realizing what he was implying with that and struggled to figure out how to rephrase it.

"Yeah, think on that a while. I'm just gonna finish this up." Kyou said, turning back to the computer screen, which had already gone black. It took a second, with him being lost in though, but Mamoru processed what he said. He gave the boy a glare.

"You suck."

 **.**

A/N: I admit I'm projecting a little here, but it seriously didn't intend to go that way. I sort of just rolled with whatever came to mind. But you know, the Lit Club's struggles are my struggles, and by pushing them on to these kids I feel somewhat satisfied.

But on to something a little more serious - mainly, I noticed something that's been bothering me for a while but never really clicked until now. And it's that... Kyou doesn't really feel like Kyou anymore. When it started out it seemed okay, but the thing about giving someone a happy ending is that it changes their character quite a bit. With the Lit Club and his new friends, he's a lot nicer and has less edge, and there's not as much angst. I feel like he'll go back to sounding like the Kyou we all started out with once I finish up this arc(or at least get to his fight), but I want to know if anyone else has noticed it or felt bothered by it. Because it's starting to feel more like an OC fic set in the CFV universe instead of a canon-AU.

That being said, I don't share Kyou's opinion about feedback - I don't mind getting it.

 **EDIT:** I forgot to mention this before, but if it wasn't obvious, the character in the Lit Club's story are named after Aqua Force unit. Because I'm unoriginal and thought it'd be a fun way to write out their story while making it a retelling of how Aqua Force got whiped out(since it was never really shown).

Three guesses who they're fighting.


End file.
